Mcveety
Project Summary
This nearly 200-year-old stone farmhouse property in great need of restoration found new life as a stunning waterfront retreat. Built circa 1830 as a lakeside working farm, the home had not seen any attention for many years. By the time the current owners bought it in 2021, outbuildings were close to collapse and the main house was crumbling.
We took the home back to the stone walls, completely gutting the interior and demolishing old additions. The roof was rebuilt, stone walls were repointed, the basement was excavated for more usable living space, a new addition was added to the front (preserving the original exterior for the lake-facing side of the home), and the garage and shoreside barn were revived and tied into the look of the original home with stones foraged on the property.
Inside, the main home was reimagined for modern living, while being careful to respect the home’s history. The owners wanted a French country esthetic to complement the historic home and insisted on maintaining original window openings, but were delighted to see the existing home transformed from a chopped-up collection of rooms to an open-concept, spacious and bright main floor, which became the living room and dining room, gently divided by a relocated and reoriented airy staircase that provides an elegant focal point. The kitchen and sunroom found a home in the new addition, along with the new primary suite upstairs.
The Challenge
Challenges included re-engineering structural loads throughout the home, raising the height of second-floor walls for more functional space while respecting the historic façade and roofline, lowering the basement floor and determining how to service the basement while saving the exposed hand-hewn timber beams in the ceiling, carving out bedrock in the basement to better centre the Rumford fireplace, which had to be rebuilt along with the chimney to restore it to working order, and finding the right spot to showcase exposed stone inside the home.
The Solution
The space was able to incorporate exposed stone walls from the original exterior, adding a unique old world feature to this new space. The plaster had to be chipped off, remnants sandblasted and the stone touched up to revive its appearance. Every square inch of this home was affected in one way or another by this whole-home renovation, with a goal of achieving a year-round, comfortable living space in the country that respects the existing architecture and blends it with the new.
The Result
The homeowners were an integral part of this project, offering much direction on their vision, which was developed as a collaboration between them and our team in a true spirit of co-operation, resulting in a stunning historic homestead that’s ready for the next 200 years.
