Renovating a 100-year-old house is a major project, but moving it several metres first and placing it on a new foundation is another challenge altogether.
And the owners aren’t stopping there. Their eventual goal for this Oak Bay water-view property is not just to create a handsome character home for themselves, but three dwellings where there used to be one.
They have roughed-in services on the lower level of their newly renovated home for a large secondary suite (once Oak Bay completes its initiative to regulate and allow them) and they are now drawing up designs for a more compact future home on the smaller of their two legal lots, which they plan to enjoy when their children leave home.
Hugh and Michelle Ruthven, who have been in this house for about 10 years, hired Nickel Brothers to move the 1912 building five metres to the side.
The move cost more than $40,000, not counting the new foundation, but made financial sense, as the home rests on two legal lots.
Working with Maximillian Huxley Construction and Rus Collins at Zebra Design & Interiors Group, the owners updated and renovated the entire house. Outside, they restored and rebuilt a detached garage, added cedar shingles in a soft grey tone, built a new deck and added a new roof.
Inside, all the wiring, plumbing and heating systems were replaced and new insulation was added, some in walls that had little or none before. All the floors have been refinished or re-tiled, two walls were taken down in the kitchen and that space has been totally reconfigured, said Michelle.
The previous kitchen had no window facing the water, Hugh noted. “It was an era when kitchens weren’t the centre of everything like they are today. We spend 80 per cent of our time in the kitchen because we both love to cook, especially hand-made pizza.”
Chimneys were removed, new drywall was installed and the house was given a fresh coat of paint by Black Dog Painting.
“This house had wonderful bones and a very interesting history, but it needed a lot of love,” said Hugh, who was born and raised in Victoria and is a brand strategy consultant and principal in Intuition Brand Planning. He was also in the coast guard during university days, hence his affinity for boats and the coast.
The kitchen was state of the art in 1960, he said with a nod to previous owners. Built in 1912 for Percy Scurrah, who served as mayor of Victoria from 1955 to 1961, the house was later home to Joan Dale, a long-time friend of Princess Grace of Monaco.
The Ruthven did the renovation in two phases — “the first shortly after we moved in and now this major one. Every square inch has now been redone,” said Hugh, who credits his wife for her vision and ability to focus on the end goal.
It’s no surprise, since Ontario-born Michelle was formerly on the Canadian Alpine Ski Team and used to travel downhill at 140 kilometres an hour. She competed in three Olympics — Calgary, Albertville (France) and Lillehammer (Norway) — and was ranked eighth in the world.
She now has her own personal training company, with clients here and in Ontario, where people work out with her via Skype.
Hugh said she is the best driver he has ever known because she always looks so far ahead. She’s also a terrific designer and forward planner. “She has a great knack for envisioning space … I just tag along.”
Michelle said the garden needed reinventing, too, as the steeply sloping front yard was a mass of overgrown shrubs, bordered by an old stone wall and driveway.
It now features lawn, pavers, terraces of plantings and a new driveway attractively braced by a solid bank of boulders.
“The back garden was a mess, too. Once we started clearing the bushes and brambles, we found an old chicken coop that we didn’t even know was there.”
But the property and house had good bones and the south Oak Bay location, close to the water with southwest exposure, couldn’t be better, with its views of the ocean and Olympics.
“We have wonderful light here, too, and get at least an hour more sun than on the other side of Oak Bay, where we used to live,” said Hugh. “Our previous home on Windsor was surrounded by trees, too, whereas this house is open to the sky.”
He said the reno went well and moving the house was cool to watch, “especially when they lowered it using hydraulic jacks, shifting it an inch this way and that till it sat perfectly on the new foundation.”
The move and installation of new services were complex and tricky, said builder Max Huxley, because the house is five metres below street level and the property is very rocky.
“We had to do quite a bit of complicated excavation, as we were not only moving the house, but also dropping it down four feet so it would conform to new height restrictions. And we increased the basement to full height.”
He said moving the house was also complex because it wasn’t square.
“It was off 11 inches over 50 feet, so we had to duplicate that exactly in the foundation. Then, when it was lowered onto the new foundation, it fit precisely but, because the house had not been level before, it threw everything off.
“Doors didn’t fit properly, cracks appeared …. We had to reset doors in jams and we put in all new doors on the top floor.
“Because it was a subdivision, we also had to upgrade the existing infrastructure, which added about $60,000 to $75,000 to the cost of construction. Oak Bay was good to work with on the new sewer, storm, water, driveway and sidewalk.”
The builder installed new windows, took out two chimneys that ran up through the kitchen and master bedroom, added a new insulation membrane and took out an old oil furnace.
“We’ve had unbelievable energy-consumption savings, with the better insulation, new windows and natural gas,” said Hugh.
Their next home, next door — where they plan to downsize after their son and daughter, age 22 and 23, move out — will be more compact and even more energy-efficient.
“It will have a complementary look with the same shingles, windows and white trim.”
Ultimately, they’ve achieved their goal to fix their century-old house while maintaining its character and creating sensitive infill — all of which is consistent with Oak Bay’s plans to encourage heritage preservation while boosting density.
“We’ve had fantastic support from our neighbours, who love what we’ve done to the house, ” said Hugh.
“Their comments have been very rewarding.”
