PEOPLE in Food & Entertaining
The right place
Ann Mulvale
Oakville Mayor Ann Mulvale has been drawn to the town’s north end, near Sixteen Mile Creek, since moving there in 1972. Three of the four Oakville homes she has lived in have hugged the banks of the picturesque creek, including her current dwelling, a 1,750-square-foot bungalow with a lower-level walkout. Mulvale, Oakville’s mayor since 1988, purchased the bungalow in September 2002 but waited until 2003 to move in, to allow for extensive renovations.
NAME: Ann Mulvale
OCCUPATION: Mayor of Oakville
RESIDENCE: Oakville bungalow
IN RESIDENCE: Since 2003
SHE SAYS: ‘If you have the right location, you can come into harmony with the house ...’
Q: Is the right location important to you?
A: My belief is, if you have the right location, you can come into harmony with the house, the physical building. But, if you don’t have the right location, for me you won’t as quickly move to a sense of peace and oneness.
Q: What is the outside of your house like?
A: I wanted this house for more than two decades. It has an amazing lot. When I bought it, it had a stone front, curved archway and a metal garage door, so we softened it. It is now sandy beige stucco with a medium-stained wooden garage door. I had a craftsman restore the original double wooden front doors from when the house was built in 1972. They are stained slightly darker than the garage. I added brushed gold hardware and replaced smaller windows with larger clear glass with a pattern of opaque leaves. It lets the light in, which was my goal. At the back, I replaced the old deck and put in a cedar deck with glass panels. It runs the width of the house outside the windowed great room and kitchen. The original deck blocked the view from the lower level so, with some effort, I found a spiral staircase that met the building code; it is off to the side so it doesn’t interfere with the view from downstairs.
Q: What does the interior look like?
A: A white antique cabinet in the foyer, where I store slippers for visitors, has a special significance. This cabinet came from our first apartment in Canada, near Tecumseh, outside of Windsor. We rented the apartment furnished. Then the people died and we bought all the furniture from the estate, so it is a link to the past. It is very sentimental because Peter (her late husband) worked on it. It is a piece that I will probably have restored. The flooring is earth-tone ceramic. Also in the foyer is a glass and dark brown wood barometer that once hung in Peter’s parents’ house, and a Hebrew blessing for the home, from a longtime friend who is a minister.
From the foyer you come upon a floating staircase. I replaced the 1970s railing with a Brazilian cherry railing that matches the hardwood flooring in the great room. In place of rails, I had panes of solid glass installed.
Walking straight to the back of the home, there is an open-concept living room on the right and a dining room in the centre that morphs into the kitchen. Both living room and dining room have Iranian carpets in blues and terracotta. The living room has a matching chesterfield and loveseat in a deep turquoise, burgundy and blue leafy patterned fabric. There are two burgundy recliners, one used as a reading chair, conveniently next to a mahogany magazine table. As well, there are two mahogany end tables, a curio table and a large teak-and-smoked-glass wall unit. There’s also a semicircular china cabinet from the 1900s, with inlaid wood and glass doors that belonged to my grandmother, Lillian Hughes, and reminds me of visits to Grandma’s as a child.
On either side of the cabinet are two medium-stained wooden chairs I bought last year at the Oakville hospital antique auction. The reason I bought them was that nobody would bid on them, so I said, ‘I’ll take them.’ Two extra chairs are always useful. They sit there as if they came with the china cabinet. The floors in the kitchen are earth tone ceramic and the appliances are white. The master bedroom and ensuite are at the front of the house, on the main floor. This bedroom is painted yellow beige.
Q: Did you hire locally when renovating?
A: I renovated using Oakville artisans, craftsmen and local artists. I also have antique furniture pieces purchased in Oakville, some at auctions supporting Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.
Q: Did your renovations include the lower level?
A: The lower level is painted lighter beige and has mostly blond laminate flooring. It includes my home office, a second kitchen, and a family room with photos on the wall.
There are two guest bedrooms for family and friends, who make frequent use of these rooms for long-term stays.
Special to Go@home
