Home Tours 2009: Mary Lahammer and Chad Flynn | South Metro

Viewers of Twin Cities Public Televisionision’s Almanac: At the Capitol know reporter and anchor Mary Lahammer for her political savvy. But one step inside the south metro home she shares with her husband, Chad Flynn, and their daughter, Bayliss, and you realize that her love of history rivals that of journalism. With degrees in both disciplines, Lahammer began to gravitate toward a timeworn look following travels to England with Flynn. The pair, who originally favored modern styles, fell in love with antiques fairs and venerable old manors. “Slowly one antique crept in, and then another,” she says.

The result particularly appeals to Flynn, a financial underwriter at HealthPartners, who spent time as a child in his mother’s hometown of Coventry, England. Shelves in the couple’s library are full of trophies and other sporting antiques, including a rugby ball from Coventry and a photo of Flynn’s grandfather with the professional rugby team of Wales. “Everything has a story,” Lahammer says. Their love of “the rusty and crusty,” as they call it, has blossomed into a side business called In Like Flynn Furnishings, which sells English and Swiss Army antiques out of Hunt & Gather in south Minneapolis. The next buying trip comes this fall, when the family plans to hit antique fairs in England. “When we were building our home, we’d bring back a container,” Flynn says. “But now we just fill lots of suitcases.”

The ever-evolving look is far from perfect. “We’ve always had the philosophy that our daughter can touch everything,” Lahammer says. “I think it’s easier to live with antiques than with new pieces. If something happens, it just becomes a part of an item’s history.” Flynn agrees: “We try to stay away from antiques where you can’t put your drink down.” Indeed, even the home’s most formal space, the dining room, is put to regular, sometimes rambunctious, use. “We actually had our daughter’s fourth birthday party there, so it’s not just for stuffy occasions,” Lahammer says. “I dressed up every chair with princess costumes, and we had Barbies lining the runner.”