Candler Park house feels like country home

Atlanta’s Candler Park neighborhood bills itself as the home of everything eclectic, a family-friendly neighborhood with a focus on walkability and livability. Just south of Druid Hills and east of Inman Park, the community is centered on Candler Park and its golf course.

Hundred-year-old homes sit next door to new construction, and the neighbors range from original residents to folks buying the latest loft designs. The eclectic nature of the neighborhood is reflected in its assortment of businesses.

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HYOSUB SHIN / hshin@ajc.com

George and Courtenay Dusenbury have a one-story brick home with lots of green features including solar panels on the roof, rainbarrels in the yard, and a clothesline in the backyard. Picture of the Dusenburys, from left, William, 6, George V, 9, Courtenay, and George Dusenbury IV with their dog Maggie.

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HYOSUB SHIN / hshin@ajc.com

A new screened porch lets the Dusenburys indulge their love of the outdoors. At night, a chorus of insects gives them the feel of living in the country – without the commute. ‘This is the best of both worlds,’ says Courtenay.

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HYOSUB SHIN / hshin@ajc.com

George V, romps through the front garden, which is abloom with memories. Some specimen plants and a collection of concrete ducks date from the home’s previous owner, a horticulturist with Agnes Scott College. Scattered around the garden and filling the large birdbath are clay pots, the fruits of pottery classes taken by mother and sons.

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Candler Park is the home of the original Flying Biscuit Cafe, as well as a belly-dancing studio, an indoor rock climbing place and a small neighborhood market with a great wine and beer selection. Neighbors pride themselves on being able to walk to everything they might need or desire.

On Oct. 12, the neighborhood will host a tour of homes that presents the variety of house styles and lifestyles in Candler Park. One house on tour is the home of George and Courtenay Dusenbury and their sons George and William. It’s the family’s second home in Candler Park.

The Dusenburys moved from Washington to Atlanta in 2000 and bought a two-bedroom, one-bath home in the neighborhood.

“My brother and sister-in-law and their children live in Candler Park; my parents live in Grant Park. We wanted to live near family,” says George, 42, executive director of Park Pride, a nonprofit organization that works with communities to develop and maintain more and better parks for Atlanta.

The Dusenburys were also attracted to Candler Park because the neighborhood is near MARTA, near the park, near the Flying Biscuit business area and Little Five Points.

“You can walk to all these places,” George says.

Courtenay also was immediately taken with the area and their first home.

“It was fun to be living in that house,” says Courtenay, 44, director of a global health program at Emory University.

But when the couple had another child and added two cats, a dog, fish and assorted other pets to the mix, they knew it was time to move.

“We realized we probably needed a bigger place,” Courtenay says.

Their neighbors, Victoria and Paul Niblock, were moving, and the Dusenburys were able to purchase the home from the Niblocks directly.

They began immediately to reduce their new home’s environmental footprint, adding attic insulation and storm windows. But then they went a little further.

“We invested $20,000 in the solar panels,” George says. “We were the first people in Georgia Power’s service area to get solar power hooked into the grid. We are a solar provider. When we have extra power, we sell it to them.”

The home’s 20 2-feet-by-4-feet solar panels generate 2.4 kilowatts of power per hour when exposed to direct sunlight. In summer, that’s five to six hours per day; in the winter, three to four. The power they generate in the summer is roughly equivalent to the amount they use, because the family is frugal with its energy use.

Just as the home’s owners would have done in the 1920s, the Dusenburys take advantage of natural cooling.

“At 7 a.m., we open the windows and turn on the attic fan to pull in the cool morning air. If it gets down around 72 degrees or lower, that works great,” says George.

They also prefer to air dry their clothes, and Courtenay designed a clothesline system under their back porch that allows them to hang laundry no matter the weather, and pull the clotheslines out of the way when the space is needed for play or entertaining.

Gardening is a passion for the couple, with George in charge of vegetables and Courtenay in charge of the flower garden. Rain barrels at each corner of the house help deal with the drought, and a growing collection of taller shrubs and small trees screens the front yard from the sometimes busy traffic on Clifton Road.

The front garden is abloom with memories. Some specimen plants and a collection of concrete ducks date from the home’s previous owner, a horticulturist with Agnes Scott College. Scattered around the garden and filling the large birdbath are clay pots, the fruits of pottery classes taken by mother and sons.

Six years ago, the Dusenburys constructed an arbor to provide shade for their front entrance. Now almost completely covered with Carolina jessamine, it blocks the morning sun from the living room and provides a pleasant place to sit and enjoy the front garden.

Walking under the arbor and onto the screened front porch, visitors begin to get a feel for what Courtenay calls “a comfortable home for a family with some interesting antiques and artwork.” Family is indeed represented everywhere, as there is a family story related to nearly every piece of furniture or artwork.

George’s uncle Phillip Dusenbury of Tryon, N.C., is a sculptor. The family owns several pieces of his work, including a figure of a short-order cook created on commission for the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary, and “Hot Dog Reverie,” an elderly man contemplating a dancing hot dog on his plate. George’s father, George Dusenbury III, is also a painter, as was George’s great-uncle Chuck, and pieces of their work are hung throughout the house.

Courtenay’s mother, Diane McKinnon, owns an antiques business, and the Dusenburys’ household furniture combines antiques inherited from family or her mother’s shop with pieces found in such stores as the Salvation Army thrift shop or gathered from the side of the road.

“This is so ingrained now that when we’re driving, the boys will yell out, ‘Treasure!’ when they see things on the side of the road, and we have to stop and see if there’s anything there we can make use of,” says Courtenay, laughing.

In the living room is a lamp stand created from an old washstand Courtenay found in a junk pile in Washington. The coffee table in the family room is an old farm table with its legs cut off and the living room features an East Lake settee that Courtenay found in a bargain basement antiques shop.

The walls of the family room are lined with bookshelves built by George and his father-in-law, William McKinnon. The rocking chairs came from their great friend and neighbor Myrtle Barnes, who passed away last year.

Son William is 6 and collects plants, so his bright yellow and green bedroom holds his cactus collection, a few carnivorous plants and assorted family pets. George V is 10, and his room is home to the family’s rock and shell collections, neatly displayed in old type boxes.

Downstairs in the basement is what the family refers to as “kid world,” a big open space for the children where they can run around with their toys and play.

“Once every few months,” Courtenay smiles, “we go and wipe down the floor.”

Back upstairs, the master bedroom and kitchen open out onto a newly built screened porch. A dining area outside the kitchen and seating area outside the bedroom create a whole new place for the family to enjoy being outdoors.

“Both George and I grew up in college towns, in houses that were surrounded by trees,” says Courtenay. “We both love the outdoors and would love to live in the country, but we don’t want to live in a place where we have to drive a long way to get to our jobs. This is the best of both worlds.”

In the evenings, the family finds the new porch a peaceful place to look at stars and listen to insects. They’ve found their piece of the country in eclectic Candler Park.

Neighborhood home tours

Candler Park Tour of Homes: Oct. 12; noon-6 p.m. Eight homes and a loft are on tour. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 on the day of the tour. Information, call 404-522-5455 or log onto www.candlerparkfallfest.org.

Morningside-Lenox Park Tour of Homes: Oct. 11 and 12; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, noon-5 p.m. on Sunday. Eight homes are on tour. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 on tour days. For information, call 404-874-6357, Ext. 424, or log onto www.mlpa.org.

South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development Tour of Homes: Oct. 18 and 19; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. both days. Ten homes are on tour in this seven-neighborhood district. Also included are a charter school and the UFO (Urban Farm in Ormewood). Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 on tour days. For more information, log on to www.sandtourofhomes.org.