HOME & GARDEN: Graingers update historic Lucknow building to create their dream house
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
When The Citizen set out in search of stories for the 2024 edition of its annual Home & Garden section, the first idea that came to mind was this extremely cool fieldstone house on the outskirts of Lucknow. This glorious local gem has everything one could possibly want for a story about eye-catching homes - great bones, interesting additions, curb appeal and, somewhere inside, a lovely young family that comes with its very own tour guide in the form of four-year-old Basia Grainger.
Basia’s house looks almost like it came out of a fairy tale - its stately walls were erected in the late 1800s out of stones pulled from local fields, the natural beauty of which was augmented later on with a striking front porch constructed out of smooth river rocks. Her parents, Eva and Sebastien, have been quietly adding little personal touches to the already stunning space since they arrived in town from Los Angeles, California in 2020 with plans to create a space where they could grow as a family and as artists. The whole clan was happy to agree to show off their creative living space to The Citizen on the eve of the family’s weekly pizza party.
It felt like this was going to be a fairly straightforward story - Seb, Eva and Basia would make some pizza together in the modern, airy kitchen they had conceptualized together, followed by a guided tour and a photoshoot of their charming young family eating dinner together - super simple! But then Basia found a toad in the garden, and the whole plan unraveled immediately. We no longer had a tiny tour guide - Basia had transformed into a full time toad enthusiast.
To be more accurate, Basia didn’t find the toad that evening - Seb had found it hours earlier, nestled right near the spot in their backyard where they’re planning to build a greenhouse someday. When he mentioned his chance encounter with the little amphibian to his daughter, she asked if they could go look to see if it was still there. It was. “In my defense,” he explained much, much, later, “I didn’t really think that it would actually still be there.” When Seb began the pizza-making process, he found that he no longer had his normally enthusiastic junior pizzaiolo to guide him in the pie-making endeavour - Basia was still out in the yard, too busy with the construction of a temporary terrarium for the toad to help with dinner. It was easy enough for her parents to keep an eye on their progeny from the kitchen - when they were planning the room’s much needed renovations, they made sure that the central island lined up with their windows to facilitate an unobstructed view of Basia’s primary play space. The open concept of their many windowed main floor means that, no matter what part of the yard their daughter may be showing off to her new toad friend, there’s always a way for Seb or Eva to check that she’s safe without having to hover over her every move.
One of the other benefits of having so many windows is a preponderance of natural light. When the sun sets and night falls, filmmaker Eva’s tasteful lighting choices bring out the home’s interior warmth, giving their living space some serious Renaissance Era painting vibes. “The best part of being here in our house, and here in the county, is that my ideas can expand - I love to write here, and Seb can make noise here as a drummer,” she explained.
When dinner was served, Basia was still not ready to part ways with her bumpy companion. She made several unsuccessful attempts to convince her parents that her toad would be happier spending suppertime somewhere in the house, perhaps in her bedroom, or in Seb’s subterranean studio, before she came up with the winning pitch - the toad, safely ensconced in its makeshift habitat, of course, would feel right at home in the mud room. “Toads live in the mud,” she argued persuasively. “And the mud room is hardly even inside.” After a brief huddle, both of Basia’s parents had to admit that she was making some pretty salient points, and so the toad stayed in the picture, for just a little while longer.
And even though he was forced to go it alone this time, Seb’s pizza was still absolutely delicious.