Village Squire, 1980-10, Page 8' tw
The Castle, a 20 room home on Highway 4, has been lovingly renovated by Jane and Earl Bensette.
(Photo by Townshend)
A big restoration job
A young family has spent 10 years making their castle a home
BY ELAINE TOWNSHEND
What attracts a young family of three
to a twenty -room house that was built as
a replica of a Scottish castle prior to
1843 and had been vacant for twenty
years?
"Sheer ignorance!" laughs Jane
Bensette as she relaxes in the spacious
high-ceilinged family room in the
Bensette home near Brucefield. "We
knew it would take a lot of work, but 1
don't think we realized how much," she
adds more seriously.
Originally from Windsor, Earl and
Jane Bensette bought the house and
five acres eleven years ago. For eight
months, they and their son Aaron, now
thirteen, lived in London while making
four rooms of their new home livable.
Later they lived in four downstairs'
rooms while working on the rest of the
house.
Water, hydro and heat had to be
installed, and a new slate roof was
needed. Windows and shutters were
smashed. The Bensettes found shutters
strewn over the fields and even in the
cistern. Verandas and balconies needed
strengthening, and damaged brick work
had to be replaced.
Each room of the house had to be
completely renovated. The plaster on
ceilings and walls was cracked and
fallen; floors were rotten and doors
broken. Closet space was lacking. In
spite of the abundance of rooms, only
one closet was included.
An unexpected problem was posed
by the type of paint used in the kitchen
and dining room. The lime, milk and
salt mixture, known as old-fashioned
whitewash, was as hard as metal.
Although it had been damaged through
the years, the paint was impossible to
remove completely from the walls and
ceilings and had to be covered instead.
"My husband likes something diffe-
rent," explains Jane, "and he has
learned how to do everything in the
house - carpentry, bricking, roofing,
installing water and hydro. The only
things he didn't do himself were install
the heating system and septic tank."
After ten years of hard work, fourteen
PG. 6 VILLAGE SQUIRE/OCTOBER 1980