Southern Ontario is a treasure trove of early architecture for those inclined to history. And it is the abundance of its various histories represented in visual architectural form that adds to its interest and beauty. In my expeditions through the countryside and towns I always spare an eye for the homes of our past. [...]
“There’s a house I think you’d better look at west of town.” This from a realtor friend who knew the kind of place that might interest me. I’d been looking around Port Hope, Ontario for about seven years for something worth restoring. When I saw the house, such as it was, set well back [...]
A successful house, particularly one that has survived centuries of living will be invested with soul. How did it come to inhabit the house? Perhaps it was passed on by the original builder that sought shelter for his brood who put his heart into every stroke of the broadaxe. Perhaps the first tree that offered [...]
If you were to look for Canada’s earliest tradition other than the aboriginal you must start with the French style. I’ve always been intrigued and beguiled by it, particularly those field stone cottages often whitewashed over with their multi-paned casements and colourful shutters. I think of the habitants themselves, who have shown us their strength [...]
Montana. The word evoked the old west for me. Winchesters, Colts, Buffalo, Antelope, vast hills and plains, mountain streams full of trout. When a client with a small ranch of 1500 acres (yes, the neighbour’s was rumoured to be 50,000 acres) called me for a design for a ranch near Big Timber, I couldn’t wait [...]
Chinking is the stuff you put between the logs to keep the weather out. That’s why we like to build an insulated sandwich in the spaces to insure against a Canadian winter barging uninvited into our livingroom and making itself at home. The ideal space to work with is about three inches of height by [...]
For fifty years so far, I have loved old log houses, particularly the hand-hewn square-timbered ones that I find superior to all other styles. I love restoring these log houses for families who also appreciated them. And I’ll go anywhere to find a vintage log house. They seemed easy to find back in the 60s [...]
Sometimes in our business we run into creatures big and small. One or another of them seemed to think these old abandoned houses would make a lovely home and why not? They weren’t being used were they? We’d often start with the dirty business of cleaning up after them since their natural tendencies precluded our [...]
Some log house enthusiasts think we can move the whole house in one piece. You can’t. Well, most of the time you can’t for lots of reasons…reasons why we disassemble them a log at a time, numbering each one and noting its placement on our rebuild plan. I know it sounds laborious and it is. [...]
I’d just finished building one of our log homes near Cascades Quebec and came to admire the early buildings there, particularly the ones with the curved overhangs over their porches. Inevitably, I found one to bring back to Ontario. It was large, being 35 ft. by 28 ft. with the customary piece-sur-piece method of cornering [...]