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The Renovator’s Renovation: 60s home gets much needed attention
By Scotty MacKenzie
There is an old adage that goes, “the cobbler’s kids have no shoes.” This same predicament holds true for many contractors and their families. With such a busy marketplace it can seem everyone is getting their renovations looked after with the exception of those who renovate for a living. This scenario certainly held true for the wife of busy contractor Wayne Sage (owner of Harwood Design Builders) who was waiting patiently for her turn.
In 1962 their Southdale home would have been at the leading edge of contemporary design and marketplace innovations. However, by 2010 the foiled flower wallpaper, wood-panelled valences, built in place cabinets with laminate countertops and vinyl-tiled floors had all been on duty for almost 50 years, and Mrs. Harwood Design Builders had been patient for long enough.
Step one was the involvement of a designer. After going through hundreds of renovation projects, Wayne Sage, owner of Harwood Design Builders Ltd., knew all to well the importance of utilizing a designer to tie it all together and make the best use of space.
Sage comments, “The home was already quite an open concept so there wasn’t a lot of reconfiguration opportunities to explore. Utilizing what was there wisely and making it flow for an active family of four was key to this renovation. We had just completed a very successful project with Lisa Duxbury who happened to be available and welcomed this opportunity. She was willing to work with the ideas I had in mind already. It was a great collaboration.”
After ensuring that the structure of the home was still sound, plumb, square and free of any home aging problems, demolition began. Once demolition was complete, the interior was a clean slate to introduce the latest products, many of them environmentally friendly.
Toffee-stained wide plank and distressed bamboo floors were used throughout with a transition to the kitchen area where new floor tiles were put in over a heat mat for those cold floor winter mornings.
The new cabinets and mouldings were all custom made by Seine River Cabinets out of Teak Veneer Echo wood supplied through Hardwoods of Winnipeg, and doors from CRVP doors. Wayne’s wife Gisele is thrilled with the result of her new kitchen and comments, “I can’t believe we now have all this storage space and cupboards in the same area I had before. It’s amazing.” A fullheight glass display case was supplied through Fort Rouge Glass and really sets off the kitchen with a modern-era look. However, the Sage’s comment that it is the finishing feature that gets the most comments. A relatively new product to the marketplace called Ice Stix were used for the entire backsplash walls and while seemingly brown in colour, with different light levels reflections dance in a rainbow of colours and bring the entire kitchen to life.
Being a smaller home by today’s standards, the need for a formal dining room wasn’t in the plans. However, Wayne had an innovative solution. “We always find that while entertaining, the migration is always toward the kitchen and while we had room for a dining room table I wanted to do something a little different to create a social centre to the house.”
The result was an elevated to bar height centrepiece dining room table to rival any other like it.
It is three feet wide by eight feet long and is large enough to sit eight very comfortably and larger dinners when needed. It rests on additional cabinet space underneath and has four decorative matching columns. A Fusion Granite top was used as the table top. Gisele comments, “We didn’t know whether to hang it on the wall as art, or, use it as the table top. It’s absolutely gorgeous.” The table top and kitchen granite countertops were supplied and installed by Carrara Tile and Marble. Wayne recognizes, “I can’t say enough about Carrara Tile and Marble. They always come through for us and it’s great to send our clients there as they have a magnificent showroom. They really sourced some great product for us based on Lisa’s selections.”
The raised table top however was not without issue. Designer Lisa Duxbury had selected a rather large hand-forged light fixture to be suspended over the table. With the high top table and only an eight-foot ceiling this was going to present a unique challenge. With abundant attic space above the table, Wayne decided to restructure his attic rafters and create a unique inverted vault into the ceiling space to house the light fixture. The result was a dramatic effect to showcase not only the fixture but the granite countertop as well.
A feature wall and cabinet tower was added to the end of the dining island with matching fusion granite countertop to introduce another echo wood product and to add some colour variation to the wood-and-natural-product theme throughout the renovation. Given the casual, on-the-go lifestyle of the family, this wall also featured the multi angled flat-screen TV. The game will never be missed while cooking, dining or casually entertaining in the family room. The baby grand piano was added by Wayne just to say, ‘sorry dear, it may take until next year for the master bath and ensuite to be finished.’
Harwood Design Builders is a Gold award-winning Master builder/Master renovator member of the Manitoba Home Builders Association. They were recognized in 2009 as a top five finalist in Canada by the Canadian Home Builders Association SAM Awards for one of their renovations.
This article was featured in the Jun-Jul 2010 issue of Renovations Home Improvement & Design Magazine. View Complete Article Here