Townsman, 1992-03, Page 7ranges across southwestern Ontario,
taking down buildings and recycling
as much of the material as possible.
In fact when he started building the
couple's dream house, he had a lot
more experience tearing down houses
than building them. He got help from
relatives and friends who did have
more experience.
As the house began to rise, there
were plenty of questions on main
street in Brussels. First went walls of
old -looking studs instead of the usual-
ly bright new wood of new lumber.
Then over the top of that went used
rough -cut lumber, nailed diagonally
over the stick -walls. That dry old
building material was to pay a divi-
dend, however, Dave says. Green new
lumber often continues to dry after the
house is built, sometime splintering,
or causing cracking of plaster. There
were no problems in their old house.
It was more difficult to work with,
however, because the old lumber was-
n't cut to standard sizes, requiring a lot
of measuring.
While the structural materials were
very prosaic, one of the glories of the
new house was already in place before
the roof went on. Centre -piece of the
house as it rose was a staircase and
banister that had been salvaged from
an older house. The staircase had to
be shortened for the new house since
it had come from one of those old
houses with an I1 -foot ceiling. The
staircase was covered with plastic
until the building could be closed in.
For passers-by, the look of the
house didn't really start to take shape
until the reclaimed buff brick started
to go on. The brick made the house
look like an older house with brick
that had been cleaned.
Inside, reclaimed brick also played
a large part. In the kitchen -dining
room area is a wood -stove on a hearth
of buff brick. In the living room is a
large red brick fireplace with a large
beam serving as a mantle.
The warm feeling of old wood is
everywhere in the house. The trim
around windows and doors is made
from reclaimed pine planking. There
is a huge hutch in the dining area that
was made specially for them from old
pine planking.
Upstairs the floors are made of
pine planking. The banister, of course,
gives the feeling of age and solidity
you don't find in modern staircases.
The modern layout of the house
helps make the most of the 2000
square feet of space in the home.
The sun -room, the final part of the completed house, combines factory beams
with reclaimed brick and lots of windows for a cheery atmosphere.
There are no hallways downstairs.
Focal -point is the large kitchen where
even the cupboards were salvaged
from a house that used to sit on the
site before they tore it down. They
wanted a kitchen where they could eat
and entertain, not a small kitchen with
full dining room. The result is a spa-
cious kitchen that allows plenty of
people to sit around while meals arc
being prepared. Working in the
kitchen Sharon can look out a win-
dow into the front yard. Through a
Targe arch is a dining area that in turn
looks out, through sliding doors, to
the bright sun -room.
To the other side of the kitchen is
the living room with the Targe fire-
place the centrepiece, taking up most
of the west wall while a Iargc window
floods the room with light. On either
side of the fireplace are two small,
round, stained glass windows. Old
stained glass windows are often cold
and drafty, Dave says, so these were
reworked, then covered on the outside
with a single -pane, clear storm win-
dow. The result still Icts the beauty
TOWNSMAN/MARCH-APRIL 1992 5