Who says you shouldn’t throw stones? It’s worked out pretty well for Colleen Jones.
Her stone-throwing ability has landed her two World Curling Championships (among many other titles) and a place in the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame.
Jones got into the sport at 14. “I basically followed my older sisters there,” she says – she has seven of them, plus a brother. “The sisterhood I grew up in gave me a strong, confident start in life.”
The bubbly Jones is also well-known to viewers of the CBC as a long-time weather presenter and sports reporter. That was another talent she had from an early age.
“My grade seven teacher said, ‘Colleen, you ask so many questions and talk so much, you should be a reporter.”
Jones invited Star Spaces into her home.
Q: How would you describe your home in two words?
A: Family-love.
Q: Tell us about your home.
A: My home is a Dutch Colonial built in 1950. It is 2,400 square feet. It’s located in the west end of Halifax, walking distance to everything. It’s also in the same neighbourhood where I grew up. The special feature of the house is the outdoor space. We concreted over the backyard and made a basketball court/hockey rink when the kids were small. It’s seen a lot of action!
Q: What attracted you to this space?
A: It was a sensible house that was a great location for the kids to walk to school.
Q: Who shares your home?
A: My husband Scott, sons Zach (24) and Luke (17). We have Brutus, an 8-year-old yellow Lab, and Mia the human cat…well, it’s like she’s human.
Q: What is your favourite room and why?
A: The kitchen, which doesn’t seem to be the right word for the room. It’s really the computer/ homework/laundry/TV/coffee/cooking room. It is the ultimate room. My second favourite is the mudroom. It was an addition. Before, everyone would pile all their sporting gear/stuff in the kitchen.
Q: How would you describe your decorating style?
A: Comfortable. My family is laid-back and wants no fuss, no muss; so the house reflects that. It has a masculine feel with warm colours…no flowers or pastels. The men in my life just want a full fridge and a high-def television for sports. The living room has become the family room. There’s the comfy chair by the fireplace that swivels and rocks and we all fight over.
There are wonderful stained-glass windows in the kitchen that are curling-centric. The base of the kitchen table is made from curling rocks. In our bedroom, an artist, Heather Drysdale, did a wonderful Italian mural – this was done to help me visualize trying to get to the 2006 Turin Olympics. Alas, it didn’t get me there as a curler, but it did get me there as a reporter.
Our bathroom has a hockey mural painted on the wall. It was also done by Heather. We had a tiler do a hockey rink on the floor.
Q: What is your fondest memory in this home?
A: Really it’s every day. When the door opens and someone yells, “Hey, I’m home!”
Q: What’s the one item in this house you can’t live without?
A: My cappuccino maker.
Q: Weekends at home, what are we most likely to find you doing?
A: Friday nights is movie night. Saturday morning is the market. Saturday afternoon is lots of lazy stuff. Sunday is a huge cooking day. I try to cook for the entire week.
Q: If your walls could talk, what would they say?
A: I hope they would say, “This is a family that really likes each other’s company.”
“The artist painted an Italian scene … to motivate me to go to the Olympics in Turin,” says Colleen Jones. “She’s hidden curling rocks and Olympic rings in the painting. Alas, I got to go to the Olympics as a broadcaster … but not as an athlete.”
Curling-themed stained-glass window at Colleen Jones’ Halifax home.
Curling-themed stained-glass cupboards in Colleen Jones’ “kitchen/everything room.”
Colleen Jones’ kitchen table was built with curling rocks as the base.
For curling newbies, Colleen Jones explains the tilework on the floor of her mudroom: “The rings are the ‘house,’ and it says, ‘Welcome to my house.’ Get it?”
The living room in Colleen Jones’ home. “Aka Manland,” she says.
The bathroom in Colleen Jones’ home is done up in a hockey theme, with a mural on the wall and a rink on the floor.
“These are the angels [that] protect our house,” says Colleen Jones. “There’s also something painted in Latin that supposedly says ‘To boldly go where no man has gone before.’ I just trusted the artist that she translated it correctly.”
