The Village Squire, 1981-09, Page 11New life
in old houses
Architect John Brock gives you first hand experience in the renovating game
by Dean Robinson
Outside, the building cried for paint and
clean bricks. The grass and shrubs were
early -jungle.
Inside, the floors were covered with
linoleum, threadbare broadloom or vinyl
asbestos tile. Where the rugs didn't cover,
there was paint.
On the walls there was that easily -iden-
tifiable country taste in layers of paper:
landscape scenes and floral patterns.
Some of the flowers had been gouged by
moving furniture and others tinted by
dried spaghetti that had missed the tar-
get.
Twenty years of absentee landlords and
a steady parade of tenants had done little
for the aging redbrick -duplex on the
corner of Nile and Douro Streets in
Sratford.
Still, John Brock, architect, sensed
some promise and he bought the place in
August 1975. In reflection, he says.
simply, "It was a dump."
But it wasn't always a dump. Built
about 1877 by one of Stratford's leading
merchants of the day, J.A. Duggan, the
two -and -one-half storey house stood on a
large lot and boasted many of the fine
Italianate features common in the Victor-
ian era of architecture (1860 to the early
1900 s).
In time the lot was severed and new
dwellings erected to the north and east.
Then, about 1960, the house was duplexed
with a two-bedroom apartment downstairs
and a two- (or three) bedroom apartment
up.
Brock, a Toronto native (B. Arch,
University of Toronto 1969, who had been
working in Stratford since September
1972, knew all of this when he tendered his
purchase bid in 1975. But he also knew,
from close inspection, that the building
was sound, the setting could regain its
attractiveness, and he was anxious to
practise a little of what he professionally
preaches. On top of that, the building
provided him with living and working
quarters when he decided to establish his
own business in November 1976.
He cleaned the place thoroughly and
settled for some minor improvements
until the spring of last year when he
planned and commissioned major renova-
tions.
They included new footings and steel
jackposts (to even a sagging floor) in the
basement, the elimination (and creation)
of interior walls, a re-routed staircase, a
rebuilt roof, a complete insulation job,
new veranda pillars and a new electrical
service.
The crowning touch, literally and
figuratively, is an ultra -stylish, open -
concept apartment in the attic. It's
complete with a skylight, a sundeck (that
meant re -shaping the rear portion of the
roof,) built-in appliances, air-condition-
ing, kneewall-to-kneewall broadloom and
a state-of-the-art lighting system.
At this point it should be mentioned that
John Brock does not have endless
amounts of money. Nor did he plan to
renovate as extensively as he did. Rather,
he was struck by that crazy disease that
catches all of us on occasion, an illness
sometimes dubbed the yeast syndrome.
As writer Lois Hammond once put it,
"This yeast syndrome is activated by the
heat of creative urge and the confidence of
experience. First you're charmed by the
idea of making the ordinary house into
something functional and beautiful.
You're an artist at last. Secondly,
renovating is not unlike entering a second
marriage. After living with the first effort
for 10 years, you know what you want the
second time around- nothing but the
best."
John Brock may or may not agree with
that description but he will admit he got
carried away. It's comforting to know that
a professional can be bitten by the same
bug that so often attacks his clients.
However, Brock says, careful planning
and good advice will invariably eliminate
whimsical excesses and the pain that sets
in later when it comes to paying for them.
He says people must first decide what
they want to do. Restore? Rehabilitate?
Reconstruct? Modernize? The terms are
not synonymous, though in any combina-
tion they can usually be covered by the
word renovate.
Brock has done, and continues to do, a
little of everything with his house, which
now contains his offices on the main floor,
and apartments on the second floor and in
the attic. But, remarkably, the building
has not lost its charm and from both Nile
and Douro Streets it looks like a well -cared
for single dwelling. Even from the rear it's
difficult to see the sundeck.
The man has an evident love for the
original characteristics of his house but
he's equally insistent that it be functional
and economical. What he's achieved is a
sensitive renovation in an old house. It's a
middle-of-the-road approach that many
people find comfortable. On one side you
have the purists who want each layer of
paper analysed for age and application
date as the walls are stripped, and the
slap -happy who aren't uneasy about
bricking up doors and windows, or
installing a shower in a dark corner of the
parlour.
Brock tells clients to examine their
lifestyle (do you entertain a lot; would you
really use a sauna) and needs (separate
VILLAGE SQUIRE/SEPTEMBER 1981 PG. 9