The big blue house was built in the early 1890s, and it has belonged to a doctor, two sea-captains, two professors and two writers. Located on a generous waterfront lot in the centre of the village of D’Escousse on Cape Breton Island, this home has served the present owners as their base.
The home is conveniently close to village services including a post office, day-care centre, credit union, Catholic church and general store. A cafe is open seasonally and located right on the nearby wharf.
And the local yacht club wharf is adjacent to the property.
Everything about the house expresses the more expansive spirit of an earlier day.
On the ground floor are the entrance foyer, living room, dining room, library, kitchen and powder room. After 20 years, the kitchen was renovated again in 2005.
The back porch gives access to the 12’ x 12’ deck overlooking the harbour. Ceilings are 10’ high downstairs, and 8’ upstairs.
The floor plan of the house – essentially two interlocking squares – means that every room has two big windows (about six feet by three feet) on adjoining outer walls, which makes the house amazingly bright and easy to ventilate.
The present owners bought the house in 1983, and worked on it for more than a year before moving in. They found the structure outstanding – forty-foot joists running across the house without a splice, and 4” x 6” posts more than 20’ tall on either side of every window and door aperture, cut sandstone foundation, a heavy plank roof crowned and curved like the deck of a ship.
The owners essentially built a new house inside the noble old shell, taking care to insulate it to R20 values in the walls and R40 in the roof. They completely renewed the plumbing, the wiring and the heating system.
They tore down two chimneys and built one new one, complete with an air-circulating fireplace which opens into both the kitchen and the dining room.
They laid new hardwood and ceramic tile floors downstairs, and carpet and ceramic floors upstairs. They carefully saved and re-installed the old Victorian trim, and where necessary they had new trim milled to the old pattern.
Upstairs are four bedrooms and two bathrooms, including an ensuite for the master bedroom. Two of the bedrooms – both with lovely harbour views -- are currently used as offices.
They installed new thermopane windows throughout, and built heavily-insulated front and back doors. They replaced the roof and the entire septic system. They dug out the basement, poured a new concrete floor over a deep layer of gravel drainage, and added concrete retaining walls inside the original stone foundation. The resulting basement is outstanding, with 10-foot heights throughout, a dry concrete floor, and built-in workshop space. Double garage doors in the cellar allow a pick-up truck full of firewood to drive inside, right to the furnace. The current owner used that space to build his own dinghy.
A Victorian parlour stove serves as a basement trash burner. The water filtration system is also in the basement, along with firewood storage and a combination oil/wood hot-air furnace, new in 2002.
The house had a hedge of japonica on its western boundary, but the owners planted a cedar hedge on the east side. The cedars are now 20 feet tall. Between the cedars and the house, two vine-draped board fences form a completely sheltered and private garden space which includes plum, apple and cherry trees as well as a patio and a fire-pit. The deck at the back of the house overlooks the shore and the harbour. A brick walkway leads from the deck to a gazebo tucked in beside the cedars, facing outward towards the harbour.
And yes, the hurricane-strength mooring directly behind the house goes with it.
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** CAP site Credit Union and community hall.
** Newly tarred roof.
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