An Arts and Crafts home that was built more than a century ago near the shores of Gonzales Bay has been stylishly rejuvenated by two heritage aficionados from Edmonton.
Over the past five years, Jenny Nelson and Glenn Smith have lovingly and skillfully reincarnated their home, with scrupulous attention to its age.
The project has been long and arduous because the roof had been leaking for years, the walls were alive with mould, and silverfish had infested the building — rats, too.
“They were everywhere — in the drawers, behind the vents, in the pocket doors,” said Smith.
“In the attic, there was a carpet of rat poop. Some of the rats measured 16 inches long [nose to tail] and they had chewed the wood, the wiring, the walls.”
The exterminator removed 80 rats in the first month, before they moved in.
The couple credit Newport Realty’s Melina Boucher for helping them find what would eventually become their dream house, and helping them stick with it.
“She was absolutely instrumental … She worked with us for a couple of years, showing us many older homes,” said Nelson. “When we became interested in this one, her enthusiasm was really put to the test and she said: “Are you SURE?” This house was in the worst shape of all we had looked at.
“But Melina dug in and went to bat for us. She even chased us back from the brink after we walked away in terror in the middle of negotiations. She knew in her heart this was the right house for us and we owe her so much for supporting our decision to take on this crazy project.”
Nelson, who has long adored older homes, says the work has only begun. Smith, a more recent convert to heritage appreciation — “My mother was one for throwing things away,” he says — heaved a sigh when he recalled the effort it has already required.
They bought the house seven years ago, while still living in Edmonton, but rented it to their son and daughter-in-law for the first two years.
Since moving in, they’ve done most of the restoration work themselves. They both also work from home — he is an IT specialist and software-testing expert and she is a technical writer specializing in medical technology.
The couple was happy to take on the house’s heritage designation because they like the fact it’s protected, said Nelson, adding the home has only had one family owner since it was built in 1912.
“The daughter of the original owners was born here in the 1920s and lived here all her life. She never married and for many years was a recluse and didn’t update the house — which had its good and bad points.”
On the good side was the fact that absolutely nothing had changed. It was all original, from the unpainted woodwork to the coal-burning stove in the kitchen.
The bad side was the home’s state of disrepair.
The owners loved the area, however, and saw potential in the 1,600-square-foot house.
They cleared out the attic and filled it with insulation. None of the walls have any insulation, but storm windows were installed.
All the woodwork needed refinishing and every single window needed repairs, which they accomplished with assistance from Vintage Woodworks.
It was a huge amount of work to remove all the wallpaper, patch up all the plaster and then paint, said Smith. “I repaired miles and miles of cracks, using a v-groove technique, and did my own lath and plaster repairs, too. It would have been 10 times faster to use drywall, but what’s the fun in that?” he said with a chuckle.
The owners previously had a house in Edmonton that was exactly the same age as this one, but all the renovations had been done by previous owners.
If they hadn’t had an older house before, they might have been scared off, they say. In fact, they almost pulled out when they saw the house, as they had made the purchase offer sight unseen.
But they hired a house inspector and the results were positive: They were told everything could be fixed. It turns out that the lack of insulation in the walls was a good thing, as there was no buildup of moisture or rot.
“And because the house was built with plaster walls rather than gyprock, all we needed to do was wash everything down with a solution of Borax to get rid of the mould. It was all on the surface,” Nelson said.
They were terrified they wouldn’t be able to afford the project, but the house had been vacant for a year and in the end, they got it for a “ridiculously” good price because the seller knew they were keen to restore it.
The others making offers were mostly developers who would likely have stripped the inside of any character.
The first job was to tackle all the “non-sexy” work, Smith said, such as replacing the roof and wiring. “There wasn’t a single place to plug in a stove or dryer anywhere in the house.”
The coal-and wood-burning stove in the kitchen had left a layer of soot everywhere, “so we did a lot of scrubbing of walls.” They also removed the linoleum floor, which was installed in 1923, as the newspaper underneath indicated.
The kitchen counters are still 18 inches deep and the cupboards and sink are original, too, so restoration here is next on the list.
When investigating the large tapered columns on the front porch, they were horrified to discovered that the cladding was holding them up. “The posts underneath were swinging in mid-air, completely, utterly rotten,” said Nelson.
The whole lower porch was replaced with an exact replica, although they salvaged the railings, and the home’s lower exterior cladding and inside posts, damaged by powderpost beetle, were custom-copied.
As for the basement, it was “very, very sketchy,” said Smith, thanks to a low ceiling, degraded concrete and partial earthen floor. “We put in a dehumidifier and collected up to 10 litres of water every day.”
Luckily, the giant basement door was four feet wide, allowing a small Bobcat digger inside. “That was brilliant, as otherwise lowering the floor would have had to be dug by hand,” said Nelson, noting the original door was “hilarious — just a few pieces of wood knocked together with a hook and eye latch.”
With advice from a structural engineer, they completed seismic upgrades, then dug down far enough to underpin the entire foundation. Coastal Niche Construction did the work in four-foot sections all around the house and also added footings, which were nonexistent previously.
That, and installing perimeter drains, took over a year.
But now they have a whole new lower level, with guest room, bathroom, television den and more. They needed a heritage-alteration permit to replace the back door and add an extra window in the bedroom.
The owners say there is a misconception that you can’t do anything to heritage houses.
“That’s not true,” Nelson said. “We found the heritage planner was super good to work with and we had very good experience all along the way with inspectors, too.
“Heritage protection is a good thing, but not at the expense of liveability, and we found everyone was cognizant of that. That we are not living in museums.”
