Here is a selection from the Griffin Quarterly.

Articles

This Old House
David and Barbara Schofield tell the saga of restoring their dream home in Truro.

In 1982 we purchased a huge Victorian building on Queen Street in Truro. Built around 1880, this gracious house adds much to the beauty of one of Truro’s oldest streets. The builder was William J. Kent, owner of a lucrative wood and coal business in the 1890s.

Some time in 1927, the house was converted to a set of flats. When we first saw it, the roof was leaking, the stone foundation crumbling, letting in both water and mice. Plumbing, heating and electrical systems were outdated and the chimneys falling apart. We were charmed, however, by the spacious rooms with high ceilings and wide mouldings, patterned hardwood floors, golden oak finish work, three ornate fireplaces, seven sunny bay windows, a pressed tin ceiling, and original bath features. It was when we found, hidden in the attic, numerous photos of the house taken around 1900 that we seriously decided to restore it. The photos showed the original narrow clapboards, fancy trim work and a lovely wrap-around verandah.

The initial years were spent doing necessary maintenance and extensive research on Victorian architecture. We subscribed to the Old House Journal and immersed ourselves in various publications and magazines, looking for ideas and materials. We visited historic homes in the Maritimes and in the United States, from Cape May, N.J., to San Francisco.

We knew that to restore, maintain and heat 3,900 square feet of living space, we would have to derive some income from it, so the upstairs apartment was redone first. Walls were plastered, woodwork repaired and floors refinished. Various young couples and singles have occupied the apartment over the years. In 1998, we redecorated, and furnished the apartment in period furniture and now rent it as an executive housekeeping suite.

The foundation came next. We had intended to repair the old one, but found that the rear ell, which houses the kitchen, had a six-inch sag and was pulling away from the main structure. The bay windows, built with no foundations, were also moving. Harold Hiltz, his crew and heavy equipment moved in November 1, 1986, and just days before Christmas we had a new nine-foot concrete foundation with 26 corners, an outside entrance and a poured floor. We also had a new chimney, one having fallen apart during the construction, a completely destroyed yard and huge piles of mud everywhere.

Old flowering shrubs and ferns were moved to the side yard and could only be replanted after the original brick that faced the old foundation was removed, cleaned and re-applied to the new foundation. Miraculously, they now thrive in their original location.

The new basement now provided much-needed work space in which to assemble and paint the verandah components, clapboards and exterior trim work. It also housed the architectural antiques we had collected for this project, including 50 eave brackets. Doug had rescued the brackets from a lovely Queen Street house that was demolished for a parking lot. They were exact copies of those removed from our home.

The exterior work was completed in 1997. This included removal of the asbestos siding and installation of new pine clapboard. All original trim work had been removed or damaged when siding was installed, so each piece had to be reproduced, painted and installed. The front door pediment, carved and painted by local artist Bruce Wood, was the crowning glory!

The interior restoration has presented its own challenges. The kitchen needed major work. Researching early kitchens, we found cupboards as we know them today did not exist until 1925 (similar to those in our old kitchen). Using these as a model, Doug built custom cabinets with five-piece doors, china cupboards, and wood counter tops.

The front hallway was the next largest interior project. The non-original walls were removed and re-plastered. The stairs, railings, trim work and intricate hardwood flooring were repaired and refinished. Doors and woodwork were given a new faux finish. The original newel post had been destroyed, so a new one was constructed by Doug and a local woodworker.

At last the walls could be hung with reproduction Morris wallpaper. All other rooms required extensive work and decoration. The front parlour is now the only room out of 14 that remains to be done.

Although Doug did most of the work himself, the verandah columns and spindles were made by a local craftsman. We hired a plasterer, a faux finisher for the hall woodwork, a carver for the stair rail and, of course, the foundation crew, all local people with excellent skills. Our house is not extraordinary, no famous person ever lived here, yet it pleases us to have preserved a bit of local history for future generations, and we encourage owners of other vintage houses to do the same.