Count Your Blessings | New Canaan, CT Holiday House Tour
When the Tesluk family moved into a New Canaan, Connecticut, landmark, they became part of the town’s history, even as they started creating their own.
By Carol Connare|Oct 07 2010|
Kathleen, Jackson, and Samantha take a break from Christmas decorating in the family room.
Credit: Roth, Eric
Count Your Blessings | Holiday House Tour
Credit: Roth, EricCredit: Roth, Eric Almond-pistachio biscotti will soon emerge from Kathleen Tesluk’s Aga stove, luring husband Tom and their three children from far ends of this Connecticut house. The sweets will fuel their trek to “God’s Acre” for one of New Canaan’s oldest holiday traditions. As long as anyone can remember, New Canaanites of every faith have gathered downtown on the old green, once a burying ground, to sing carols on Christmas Eve.
“It’s one of the reasons we wanted to move here,” Kathleen says. After globetrotting careers, it came time for the couple to settle and raise their family. New Canaan, with its boutiques, eateries, and hour-long drive to New York, called. But finding a house wasn’t so simple.
Kathleen and Tom gather around the kitchen worktable with Ali, age 18; Jeff, age 20; Samantha, age 16; and Jackson, the family’s golden retriever.
Credit: Roth, EricCredit: Roth, Eric
Decked for Christmas, the Tesluks’ family room, part of the home’s new addition, holds an artful collection of vibrant paintings, family heirlooms, and antique finds, some from their favorite local shop, The Silk Purse, in downtown New Canaan. At left is a patchwork quilt sewn by Kathleen.
Credit: Roth, EricCredit: Roth, Eric
Kathleen is a fabric artist who requires space to create her quilts; Tom needed a home office for his international business-development company. They wanted a place where the family could work, create, cook, and gather, effortlessly. When Tom saw this 19th-century farmhouse on Oenoke Ridge, he called Kathleen. Apple trees flanked a wide field; hills curled off into the distance. “Come right away,” he told her.
“The land spoke to us,” Tom says. The house spoke, too: The main part of the structure was built in 1870 for the Grupe family, although the home’s foundation and some remaining wide-pine floorboards, dating from the early 1800s, suggest that there was an even earlier dwelling on the site. During their century-long tenancy, the Grupes kept dairy cows and tended the orchard. “Then the Blabeys lived here for 25 years. Mrs. Blabey is still in town,” Tom notes. “So we’re the third family. In a way, we bought part of the town’s history.”
The master bedroom suite is upstairs in the newest part of the house. The painting over the fireplace is by the artist Lilian Garcia-Roig, who is married to Tom Tesluk’s cousin.
Credit: Roth, Eric
Absolutely found your article sootheing and entertaining. These are the settings of what we hope to achieve in a short few years during our retirement. Maybe not to such a great expence, but you definately captured our lifestyle of beautiful and peacefulness. Nothing better than the natural senses. Thank you.