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2014
FEATURING…the latest in custom designs and renovations
FEATURING…the latest in custom designs and renovations
The Oke Woodsmith
okewoodsmith.com
www.woodecor.ca 2980 Forest Road, Stratford, ON 519-271-2700
Makers of Distinctive Custom Cabinetry since 1983
Oke WOOdsmith Building systems was launched in 1984 with just one client and a tremendous vision. In the years since then, the Grand Bend-based company has built and renovated 600 distinctive custom homes from Muskoka to Rondeau Provincial Park for clients who have come to expect the unusual.
The idea for the company came about in 1983 when the four Oke brothers – Brad, Wayne, Randy and Kevin – reunited with their parents for Christmas. Over Christmas dinner, Randy, Wayne, Kevin and Don made a decision to help build a home for Brad in Southcott Pines in Grand Bend. Wayne volunteered to quit his job in Alberta to work on the project, Kevin quit his job as a welder in the agricultural sector, and their father, Don, decided to resign from his management position. Many years before, Don had owned his own construction company.
With just one client, Oke Woodsmith was born. It was a courageous move, given the recession of 1981.
Success followed quickly. As a well-respected builder in the area, Don Oke had brought 33 years of experience to the company. Don who was an equal partner in the company, priced the homes and ensured his sons correctly estimated the time needed for each stage of construction. After completing Brad’s house the partners landed a contract for a $1-million home in Grand Bend, which raised their profile in the area.
Randy and Brad worked for the company on evenings and weekends until the business grew. Brad, who was still working for Bell, was the last brother to join full-time in 1986. Betty, the boys mother, became general manager in 1990.
A key role for selling the homes centred on or involved the provision of architectural drawings to clients based on their ideas, budget and property. That was a new concept in an area where clients normally chose a stock plan and contracted a builder to construct it.
Initially there was no charge for the drawings which included three revisions and pricing. If clients weren’t happy with the results, they weren’t obliged to work with the company. The concept worked for nine out of ten people, where a budget and design were created to their liking. The five partners undertook all aspects of the construction work, from roofing to drywalling the homes. Randy believes that was a benefit. “It’s very satisfying when you start a job from the ground up and finish it. Any one of us could build a house from start to finish and lay the carpet, lay the tile, lay the hardwood – finish it completely.”
Along with building conventionally framed homes, in 1987, the company began building foundations and, later, above-grade ex-terior walls with Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF). The partners believed they were headed in the right direction because of the improved energy efficiency and sound resistance of concrete.
Home buyers, however, were skeptical until the company began incorporating concrete floors with in-floor radiant heat into
the design. Visitors to two of the company’s model homes in Grand Bend came specifi-cally on cold days to experience the warm floors.
“Concrete floors are warmer and the colder it is outside, the better they are inside,” Randy says.
At that point, clients began to appreci-ate the floors and recognized the value of building exterior walls of concrete to the eaves because of the added comfort and energy savings.
Oke Woodsmith has since become one of the leading builders of ICF homes in Canada and is also the distributor through-out Ontario and Quebec for Lite-Form, an ICF building system. The company sells the systems to builders and to private individuals throughout Ontario.
Over the years, the partners’ roles in the company have changed. Randy is now responsible for the design and sales of the
homes, and is also the general manager of the Oke Woodsmith office and manager of Lite-Form, Wayne acts as construction supervisor and Kevin, a finish carpenter, looks after the drywalling and fine details. Don has since passed away, Betty has retired and Brad has left the company.
Altogether, 30-45 staff members comprise Oke Woodsmith, including a team that is responsible for the company’s framing, trimming and concrete work. Employing in-house staff instead of subtrades ensures consistency in each home from the time a site is exca-vated to the time a client moves into a home.
Annually, the company builds about 20 new homes and undertakes up to 10 renovation projects. The partners have also designed and built many commercial projects including a fire hall east of Toronto, as well as office complexes and agricultural buildings in Huron County.
Oke Woodsmith is currently building homes along the Lake Huron shoreline from Sarnia to Kincardine and all points in between. The company specializes in the unusual, which attracts clients from young professional couples to empty nesters.
While the company will always be a custom home designer and builder, the partners are turning their attention to the aging population as well. One project, Stone Meadows, a one-floor condo community in Zurich, is geared toward retirees. The development is one of the first of its kind in Huron County and a first for Oke Woodsmith. What the company is trying to do is provide similar qualities that it offers in a custom home, but in a smaller
square footage and a more economical package.Randy hopes to create other similar communities as the company evolves. He believes Oke Woodsmith’s future will be in the Oke chil-
dren who, like their parents will join the company after working farther afield.
“I’m hoping our growth is in family members – our kids – joining the team,” Randy says. “That’s where you get genuine
interest in the company and the ability to expand it.”
from one home to six hundred...the history of Oke Woodsmith Building Systems
Daring to Dream
Oke Woodsmith, from left: Randy, Kevin and Wayne.
Oke WOOdsmith Building systems was launched in 1984 with just one client and a tremendous vision. In the years since then, the Grand Bend-based company has built and renovated 600 distinctive custom homes from Muskoka to Rondeau Provincial Park for clients who have come to expect the unusual.
The idea for the company came about in 1983 when the four Oke brothers – Brad, Wayne, Randy and Kevin – reunited with their parents for Christmas. Over Christmas dinner, Randy, Wayne, Kevin and Don made a decision to help build a home for Brad in Southcott Pines in Grand Bend. Wayne volunteered to quit his job in Alberta to work on the project, Kevin quit his job as a welder in the agricultural sector, and their father, Don, decided to resign from his management position. Many years before, Don had owned his own construction company.
With just one client, Oke Woodsmith was born. It was a courageous move, given the recession of 1981.
Success followed quickly. As a well-respected builder in the area, Don Oke had brought 33 years of experience to the company. Don who was an equal partner in the company, priced the homes and ensured his sons correctly estimated the time needed for each stage of construction. After completing Brad’s house the partners landed a contract for a $1-million home in Grand Bend, which raised their profile in the area.
Randy and Brad worked for the company on evenings and weekends until the business grew. Brad, who was still working for Bell, was the last brother to join full-time in 1986. Betty, the boys mother, became general manager in 1990.
A key role for selling the homes centred on or involved the provision of architectural drawings to clients based on their ideas, budget and property. That was a new concept in an area where clients normally chose a stock plan and contracted a builder to construct it.
Initially there was no charge for the drawings which included three revisions and pricing. If clients weren’t happy with the results, they weren’t obliged to work with the company. The concept worked for nine out of ten people, where a budget and design were created to their liking. The five partners undertook all aspects of the construction work, from roofing to drywalling the homes. Randy believes that was a benefit. “It’s very satisfying when you start a job from the ground up and finish it. Any one of us could build a house from start to finish and lay the carpet, lay the tile, lay the hardwood – finish it completely.”
Along with building conventionally framed homes, in 1987, the company began building foundations and, later, above-grade ex-terior walls with Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF). The partners believed they were headed in the right direction because of the improved energy efficiency and sound resistance of concrete.
Home buyers, however, were skeptical until the company began incorporating concrete floors with in-floor radiant heat into
the design. Visitors to two of the company’s model homes in Grand Bend came specifi-cally on cold days to experience the warm floors.
“Concrete floors are warmer and the colder it is outside, the better they are inside,” Randy says.
At that point, clients began to appreci-ate the floors and recognized the value of building exterior walls of concrete to the eaves because of the added comfort and energy savings.
Oke Woodsmith has since become one of the leading builders of ICF homes in Canada and is also the distributor through-out Ontario and Quebec for Lite-Form, an ICF building system. The company sells the systems to builders and to private individuals throughout Ontario.
Over the years, the partners’ roles in the company have changed. Randy is now responsible for the design and sales of the
homes, and is also the general manager of the Oke Woodsmith office and manager of Lite-Form, Wayne acts as construction supervisor and Kevin, a finish carpenter, looks after the drywalling and fine details. Don has since passed away, Betty has retired and Brad has left the company.
Altogether, 30-45 staff members comprise Oke Woodsmith, including a team that is responsible for the company’s framing, trimming and concrete work. Employing in-house staff instead of subtrades ensures consistency in each home from the time a site is exca-vated to the time a client moves into a home.
Annually, the company builds about 20 new homes and undertakes up to 10 renovation projects. The partners have also designed and built many commercial projects including a fire hall east of Toronto, as well as office complexes and agricultural buildings in Huron County.
Oke Woodsmith is currently building homes along the Lake Huron shoreline from Sarnia to Kincardine and all points in between. The company specializes in the unusual, which attracts clients from young professional couples to empty nesters.
While the company will always be a custom home designer and builder, the partners are turning their attention to the aging population as well. One project, Stone Meadows, a one-floor condo community in Zurich, is geared toward retirees. The development is one of the first of its kind in Huron County and a first for Oke Woodsmith. What the company is trying to do is provide similar qualities that it offers in a custom home, but in a smaller
square footage and a more economical package.Randy hopes to create other similar communities as the company evolves. He believes Oke Woodsmith’s future will be in the Oke chil-
dren who, like their parents will join the company after working farther afield.
“I’m hoping our growth is in family members – our kids – joining the team,” Randy says. “That’s where you get genuine
interest in the company and the ability to expand it.”
from one home to six hundred...the history of Oke Woodsmith Building Systems
Daring to Dream
Oke Woodsmith, from left: Randy, Kevin and Wayne.
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 3
41 Third Street, Vanastra, Ontario > 519-482-7869 > www.dndglassandmirror.ca
GLASSAND MIRROR
BUILDING FOR THE CENTURYAt Oke WOOdsmith, we do much more than build houses. We take design ideas from our clients, meld them with our own, and keep our collective relationship on track during the construction process and beyond.Like any good marriage counsellor, we help our clients over rough patches when they second-guess themselves and need confirmation they’ve made the right decisions. We haven’t had a divorce yet; in fact, many of our clients are building their second or third home with us, so it seems we’re headed in the right direction. While anyone can build a house, we believe it’s much harder to build a home. Infusing a building with person-ality and function comes from listening to our clients throughout the construction process. Our foremen and building superintendents meet with clients daily on their property and ensure they understand what they’re getting in their new home. However, it’s not just our communication skills that attract clients to our company. We keep ourselves, and our tradespeople, up to date on advances in building science. Many of our houses are constructed of Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF), which we believe is the very best way to build a home.During the construction process, we pour cement into insulated styrofoam forms that have been reinforced with rebar steel. The forms stay in place and become part of the finished wall, resulting in a concrete mass that eliminates drafts and deadens sound. ICF homes, in fact, are 100 per cent more energy efficient and 300 per cent quieter than a conventional wood-frame home. Homeowners never have to worry about being cold – even when gale-force winds are blowing off the Great Lakes during the frigid winter months. In the interests of comfort, we encourage our clients to heat their homes with radiant in-floor heating, which provides a consistent temperature from floor to ceiling and doesn’t circulate dust. We often pair radiant heating with engineered wood flooring since it doesn’t shrink as natural hardwoods do. Ceramic or porcelain tile are also an effective medium for transferring and retaining heat.In this edition of the magazine, we’ve presented a cross-section of homes that exemplify our design ethic: we avoid hallways, particularly in smaller homes, since they represent wasted space. We also use a variety of ceiling treatments to define open-concept living areas, which is particularly evident in most Oke Woodsmith homes. We believe in filling a home with light. By placing skylights and windows in strategic places, including bathrooms, hallways, closets and even walk-in-pantries, we make a home as inviting as possible.We encourage our clients to accompany us to an annual builder’s show in the U.S, where they’re able to see the latest design elements. Our clients’ options are as broad as their budgets and imaginations will allow. They must be prepared, however, to invest time in making thoughtful decisions about finishes and materials which adds up to making the difference between building a house – or building a home.At Oke WOOdsmith, we’re building not just for the decade, but also for the century. Our hope is that the next generation will renovate and update our buildings a hundred years from now. Whether it’s a home or an office building, we feel confident that the structure will be as solid as the day it was built.
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 5
Contact Information forOke Woodsmith…
ph: 519-238-8893fax: 519-238-8894email: [email protected]: www.okewoodsmith.com
Oke Woodsmith Magazine’s production team…production manager: Lana Breierwriter: Ellen Ashton-Haiste art director: Nancy Greenfieldphotography: Kelsey Okeprinting: Sportswood Printing
Scan here to view more photos of all the homes in this publication and others in our portfolio.
Top: The beach side of the cottage is all about the lake view, with expansive windows, cozy porches and a large covered patio.
RighT: A three-bay garage flanks the home’s covered portico entrance.
FaR RighT: The opposite side of the house also includes a sitting area landscaped with large rocks and dune grasses.
Coastal
ChateauIt’s big and grand but this vacation home has a rustic and cozy ambiance
Scan here to view more photos of this home and
others in our portfolio.
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 7
“T
22 Gill Road, Grand Bend | 519-238-2176
Suppliers of the mechanical trades to Oke Woodsmith including: plumbing, electrical, hydronic heating with radiant floors, ventilation,
central vac systems, gas fireplaces, natural gas-powered standby generators and air conditioning.
“T
above: A full wall of windows offers a panoramic view of the beach and lake from the cottage’s great room.
RighT: The two-storey great room also includes a floor-to- ceiling stone fireplace with mounted flat-screen television.
below: A second-storey mezzanine gallery overlooks the great room, which opens to a rear dining area and kitchen.
“The cottage” isn’t a term that generally con-jures images of a three-level dwelling with 10,300 square feet of living space and sleep-ing accommodation for 30.
But that’s what Oke Woodsmith Build-ing Systems, in Grand Bend, has constructed for a Michigan family on the beach at Port Franks.
With five pre-teen and teenage children and a large extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins, space was an essential require-ment. Yet this vacation home, nestled into the sand dunes along the Lake Huron shore-line, exudes a rustic charm and cozy intima-cy that belies its size and grandeur.
Sharing the credit for this achievement are Michigan-based architect Michael Gordon and interior designer Jennifer Fozo.
“What (the clients) wanted was some-thing casual but resort-like in the old Adi-rondack style, somewhat reminiscent of New England,” Gordon says.
They also wanted it to reflect the envi-ronment.
“They wanted to bring in the colours – the blues and greens of the lake, the beige of the sand – and make everything practical and functional, yet also elegant,” Fozo says.
Finally, they wanted it to be comfort-able and easy to maintain.
“With five children, it’s all about easy living,” Fozo says. “They said ‘this is a week-end home and a summer home. We want everyone to come here and relax and enjoy themselves. We don’t want to worry about who is tracking in sand or who is sitting on the furniture in a wet bathing suit’.” So dura-ble, water-resistant fabrics and rustic finishes were chosen to accommodate that desire.
The design process started with Gor-don, who says he scoped out the property when it was “still just a sand dune.”
“I wandered around and looked at every-thing – the sun angle, what are the prevailing winds.” And then there were the municipal and conservation regulations for building on the dunes to consider. “There’s a whole over-lapping layer of information – percentage of lot coverage you’re allowed and setbacks. You can’t change the topography, so the house really had to nestle into the dune.”
But Gordon is no stranger to building on the water. And he knew what he wanted to achieve here.
“I’ve done a hundred or more waterfront homes throughout the U.S. and in Canada and on some islands in the Caribbean,” he says. “So I know how people live in them, how every thing is about the view and about try-
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ing to make the house somewhat transpar-ent, inside to outside.”
His success in this is evident in the heart of this home, the open-concept great room and kitchen/dining area.
The great room soars two storeys to a beamed cathedral ceiling, with square glass-and-metal chandeliers. It features a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace and a full wall of win-dows looking out to the beach and the lake.
“That wall was a feat of engineering,” Gordon says. The three lower windowpanes, each about 49 square feet, are “the biggest pieces of glass that anyone’s comfortable put-ting in a residence,” he says.
Then, the outer supporting columns needed to withstand the weight of the wall and the weather. Initially, wood columns were planned. But, Gordon says, Oke Wood-smith experts advised using a man-made product stained to look like real wood.
“They are very talented craftsmen,” he says. “Those pillars do look like wood. We really worked as a team to come up with in-teresting finishes (indoors as well as out). I had the vision, and they came through.”
“They were fabulous,” Fozo agrees. “Every-one came together. There was a lot of camara-derie, and everyone really helped one another.”
The transparency, in the great room, was exactly what Gordon hoped for.
“When you’re in that room, it’s hard to figure out where the house ends and where the outside begins,” he says.
“I love the whole feel of the great room and kitchen area,” Fozo says. “From every point, you can see that view. I think that’s what we tried to do with the entire house, bring the whole view inside.”
And, for a large room with a large view, it’s also “really comfortable,” Gordon adds. “Even though it’s a huge room, you’d be com-fortable sitting alone there with a cup of tea.”
Behind the great room, the dining area seats 10 at a long plank table. The kitchen is anchored by an almost-10-foot island with a raised breakfast bar and lower working counter, with a deep farm-style apron sink and built-in dishwasher. Light granite coun-ters contrast with dark-stained knotty alder cabinetry, installed by Stratford’s Woodecor, adding to the rustic ambiance. Paneling on the refrigerator matches the cabinetry. And, a clever touch here is a chalkboard embedded in the door.
“That was my idea,” says Fozo. “With all those kids, it’s a nice way to leave a note – ‘at the beach’ or ‘we need milk’.”
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 11
Above: A dining area, in front of the kitchen, seats 10 at a long plank table.
Left: The kitchen island, topped with light granite, has a deep apron sink and built-in dishwasher.
beLow: Dark wood cabinetry and ceiling beams in the kitchen and dining area, with contrasting light granite counters, add to the cottage’s rustic ambiance.
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oke woodsmith, 2014 | 13
A hallway connecting the great room to the master bedroom suite also leads to a screened-in porch, with cozy seating area and gas fireplace set into a stone wall. An outside entertainment patio, enclosed by a glass rail, offers an ideal place to enjoy the sun and beach views.
Gordon says this is yet another way to create the transparency between outdoors and indoors. He adds that the porch’s screening system, another innovation suggested by Oke Woodsmith, makes it versatile through the seasons. “It’s very clever,” he says. “It’s retract-able glass. You can have a screen or glass, so it can be sheltered from the wind and elements.”
The master suite is a true retreat. It can be closed off. And, the screened porch and an opposite back stairway, separating it from the living area in the great room and kitchen, create “a nice buffer to enhance a sense of privacy,” Gordon says.
The bedroom overlooks the lake through expansive windows. A cushioned window bench in blue and white striped fabric, flanked by white built-in storage cabinets, adds to the beach and lake ambiance.
A French door accesses a private out-side sitting area adjacent to the deck off the screened porch.
A hallway, separating two extensive his-and-hers walk-in closets, features a marble bar counter with sink and mini refrigerator for morning coffee or nighttime snacks.
The focal point of the elaborate ensuite bathroom beyond is the air jet tub, set be-neath large windows with wooden slat blinds and surrounded by a wide marble deck. A mirrored wall at one end of the room dou-bles as a television. Two marble-topped vani-ties flank the doorway. An oversize steam shower, with a built-in bench, and a private toilet closet complete the ensemble.
At the opposite side of the great room an expansive entrance foyer features a unique display wall for art or collectibles. A hallway from the foyer leads to a guest powder room,
laundry room and mudroom, with built-in bench and lockers and entry from the three-bay garage.
A stairway from the foyer leads to the upper level. Here a mezzanine gallery fea-tures lighted arched alcoves for artwork that mirror the ceiling arches overlooking the great room below and the arched central window on the opposite wall.
The arches are a feature Gordon says introduce a bit of European chateau flavour. There are also arched openings looking down into the great room from the main stairway and from a loft office on the opposite end of the upper level.
“When I design something like that, I like to echo and repeat the elements to keep consistency,” Gordon says. “So I used the arch over and over, reinforcing that aesthet-ic. It helps tie the house together.”
The client’s large family was the inspi-ration for a dormitory that stretches across one end of the upper level. With six bunk beds and two queen-size beds, it can accom-modate 16 to 18 youngsters.
“If you have five children – and this is a weekend or summer home – and each child brings a friend, you can have 10 kids in tow at any time,” Fozo says.
1. Tall windows in the master bedroom, with a cushioned bench below, offer expansive beach views.2. The master ensuite bathroom includes an oversize steam shower and marble-topped vanities flanking the doorway.3. The focal point of the master ensuite bathroom is an air-jet tub with wide marble deck, set below a large window with wooden slat blinds.4. Along one end of the upper level a dormitory, with bunk beds, for the young-sters in the family, can sleep up to 18.
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14 | oke woodsmith, 2014
The dormitory features comfy seating areas, a wall-mounted television and its own ensuite bathroom.
The upper storey also includes a second laundry room and two guest bedrooms, each with generous walk-in closets, joined by a cheater bath with double vanity and tub.
The home’s lower level is all about re-laxing and playtime.
The central recreation room has a seating area around a large, wall-mounted television, a game table, pool table and wet bar, with a two-tier, granite-topped curved counter and perimeter cabinetry and coun-ter space.
The room opens to a large covered patio beneath the great room. It features a barbe-cue and outdoor kitchen and a wood-burning fireplace. A fire pit just beyond provides a perfect place to enjoy the summer evenings.
Sliding barn-style doors on either side of the recreation room lead to adjacent wings. On one side is an exercise room plus an ad-ditional guest bedroom and bathroom. Here also is housing for the mechanicals, including the heating, cooling and water systems.
This wing also leads to a boat garage along the side of the house that is current-
ly being used by the family as a basketball court.
The opposite wing has a lake bathroom with shower and a blow dryer for the dog, as well as additional storage. It accesses an outdoor shower, as well, to wash off after a day at the beach.
There is also access to a lower garage, initially planned as storage, but now used by the youngsters for a play area and indoor soc-cer games.
While the emphasis is on the beach and lake view, there is also an outdoor sitting area on the other side of the house, landscaped with large rocks and dune grasses.
The entire house is designed for energy-efficient all-season living.
Its exterior walls are concrete, con-structed with insulated concrete forms, a specialty for Oke Woodsmith, clad with Permacon manufactured stone and James Hardie fibre cement board siding. It includes geothermal heating. The interior oak floors, installed by Hucker Floor Coverings from Sarnia, are heated for additional comfort.
The clients were “adamant about hav-ing the best energy efficiency,” Gordon says. In addition they wanted premiere monitor-ing capability when they’re not there. Thus, the house is equipped with electronics to monitor all elements, from heat to lights to alarms, from any remote location.
“The home electronics is quite the pack-age, with a lot of smart home ideas,” Gordon says. “So they are worry free.”
Consideration was also given to the fu-ture, he adds. An elevator was installed to access all levels from the lower garage to the upper floor.
“The cottage could transition to a more permanent home for them in the future, if they so choose, as the kids mature and as they mature,” Gordon explains. oke
1. In the lower level recreation room, a sitting area faces a large, wall-mounted television.2. The recreation area also includes a pool table and wet bar.3. A lake bathroom on the lower level has a shower with bench seating and also includes a blow dryer for the dog.4. A covered portico leads to the home’s entrance and foyer.5. A covered outdoor patio, accessed from the recreation room, includes an outdoor kitchen, built-in barbecue and wood-burning fireplace.
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ROOMS
VIEWwith a
Many rooms in this home offer panoramic Lake Huron vistas
16 | oke woodsmith, 2014
Scan here to view more photos of this home and others in our portfolio.
W
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 17
AbOVE: A hidden stairway leads to a catwalk around the two-storey kitchen and accesses a loft office.
bELOW: The loft overlooks the kitchen with its central island and coffee/entertain-ment bar on the right.
WWatching the sunrise from the front porch, the soothing splash of the garden fountain in the background, and viewing Lake Huron sunsets from the rear patio as a cozy fire sets a peaceful mood, are just a couple of the many things a Plympton-Wyoming couple love about their new lakeside home.
In fact, the lake view was a key factor for them, in building there.
Paul and Linda had been living in nearby Enniskillen Township and were looking for a lake lot when they found this four-acre parcel of land in 2008. Located on the southeastern shore of Lake Huron as it begins to narrow to meet the St. Clair River at Sarnia, the couple maintain that, on a clear day, they can see the Michigan shoreline across the water.
When it came to planning their home, there were two priorities, Linda says. They wanted as many rooms as possible to have the lake view and they wanted that to be imme-diately visible on entering through the front door.
“So it was important to eliminate any interior walls that would block the view,” Paul points out.
The foyer and adjacent dining room at the front of the house flow into the rear great room, where a wall of windows, arched at the top to mirror the barrel ceiling, offer lake vistas from just about any vantage point.
Oke Woodsmith Building Systems was instrumental in fine-tuning the design fea-tures, the couple says.
They chose the company after seeing Lon-don Health Sciences lottery dream homes Oke Woodsmith had built in Grand Bend.
“We liked their style and we felt the fit was right,” Linda says.
The couple had been working with a lo-cal designer to plan the layout for the home, 3,034 square feet on the main level and an-other 1,682 in the lower level. But that rela-tionship had come to a standstill by the time they contacted Oke Woodsmith, she says. The company, helmed by brothers Randy, Wayne and Kevin Oke and supported by a team of talented designers, tweaked those plans to create exactly what Paul and Linda were looking for.
“Oke Woodsmith has a ‘can do’ attitude that we really liked,” Linda says, outlining the qualities that attracted them. “It was the right attitude to make things happen. And they have very unique design ideas, definitely not cookie cutter.
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“I saw the idea online,” she responds. “But Rae Ann gets credit for how the lime-stone is mounted and staggered.”
With fewer interior walls to not im-pede lake views, the designers came up with unique ways to delineate the rooms, Paul notes, citing the dining room as an example. There, a freestanding wood pillar and re-cessed tray ceiling square it off, setting it apart from the barrel-ceilinged great room and foyer.
The master bedroom, part of a suite ac-cessed from the great room and foyer, also has an expansive lake view through a triple window as well as from an adjacent hot tub room.
The couple had an outdoor hot tub at their Enniskillen Township home but wanted to bring it indoors here and opted for a less-common round tub, as opposed to square, Paul notes. And, they created a round room for it. The tub is sunk into a heated floor, with an expanse of windows on the lake side and a door leading to a private porch behind
the bedroom. On the other side, an elec-tronic pet door, activated by transmitters on their collars, allows the family dogs into to a fenced area, safe from the local wildlife.
From the outside porch, steps lead down to a stone-enclosed outdoor shower, perfect for rinsing off after a summer afternoon on the beach.
“I call it my Petticoat Junction shower,” Linda says with a chuckle. “I’m thinking I should get a wooden bucket and mount it above the shower so it looks like the water is running down through it.”
The whole purpose of the master suite was to provide a “quiet and peaceful area for relaxing,” a place to wind down at the end of their busy days, Linda says. Hence, lighting is muted and the couple opted not to have a bedroom television, although there is a small one mounted in the hot tub room.
An expansive walk-in closet leads from the bedroom to the ensuite bathroom. Here, an oversize soaker tub overlooks the front lawn and long, winding driveway.
There’s also a spacious glassed-in shower. Dark wood cabinetry is offset by Bianco Antico granite – white laced with veins of brown and black – both on the vanity coun-ters and the shower seat.
The master suite also includes a conve-nient laundry room, where a unique feature is a built-in, pull-down ironing board.
On the other side, the great room opens into the kitchen, anchored by a central is-land, with a deep copper apron sink, and lit by square metal pendant lights hung from the vaulted two-storey ceiling. Light cab-inetry, with a custom antique glaze, from Woodecor in Stratford, is offset by copper coloured ceramic tiles in the backsplash and Alaskan Cream granite counters – a creamy base mottled with dark veins. Along the wall separating the kitchen from the great room, a coffee bar/entertainment centre features brown wood cabinets and copper-toned count-er and backsplash.
Engineered hardwood flooring, though-out the main level is Castle Combe 2304
“They always go the extra mile,” she adds. “And you never feel you are bothering them (with questions or ‘wish list’ requests).”
“T“They always go the extra mile,” she adds. “And you never feel you are bothering them (with questions or ‘wish list’ requests).”
In fact, says Paul, he and Linda had enormous input into the whole design and build process, something he thinks is rare today. In the end, they say they got exactly what they envisioned and wouldn’t change a thing.
They worked closely with Oke-recom-mended interior designer Rae Ann Ladouceur, who contributed many design concepts, from colour combinations to the great room fire-place, Linda says.
Along with the view, the fireplace is a focal point of the room. A narrow gas grate is surrounded by a floor-to-ceiling over man-tle and set off by a sheet of limestone, from Strathroy’s Progressive Countertops, in ver-tical lines of browns and beiges, split in half and mounted on either side of the grate, top-lit by three accent lights.
“Linda didn’t want a traditional fire-place,” Paul says.
The back of the home offers panoramic lake views from every room, as well as from the second-storey loft balcony and outdoor patio.
1. A rounded dinette, with a round tray ceiling, at the rear of the kitchen looks over the backyard and patio.
2. Focal points of the great room are the view through a wall of windows overlooking the lake and the floor-to-ceiling fireplace, enhanced with a slab of limestone, split and staggered to surround the narrow grate.
3. A recessed tray ceiling in the front dining room sets it apart from the adjacent foyer and great room.
4. barn board doors separate a guest bedroom suite from the family room.
5. A round hot tub is sunk in the heated floor of a turret-like room off the master bedroom.
6. Entrance from the oversize garage leads to a hallway mudroom.
7. Off the kitchen, a covered concrete patio is enclosed by stone wall on one side and fireplace and built-in barbecue on the other.
8. A stone walkway leads to an outdoor shower enclosure just outside the master suite hot tub room.
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Soderbury Oak, from Hucker Floor Cover-ings in Sarnia. It’s a barn board look that the couple feels adds to an ambiance of rustic charm.
Above a rounded dinette, a 260-square-foot loft office overlooks the kitchen on one side and, on the other, offers a panoramic view of the yard and lake through patio doors that open onto a spacious concrete deck with tempered glass railing.
It was important that this space, in par-ticular, have a lake view, Linda says. She explains that it provides a restful jux ta posi-tion to the sometimes-dreary grind of office work.
Paul and Linda had hoped to have a freestanding stairway from the open kitch-en to the loft. However, municipal regu la-tions did not allow that. So Oke Woodsmith came up with another unique design fea-ture, Linda says. They installed an L-shaped staircase behind the kitchen cabinetry and a catwalk around two sides of the kitchen to access the loft.
A patio beneath the upper office deck, enclosed by a low stone wall on one side and wood-burning fireplace and built-in barbe-cue on the other, provides a comfortable space for outdoor relaxation and entertaining. It even features a remote-controlled sunscreen that can be lowered to mute the effects of the hot summer sun.
On the opposite side, the kitchen flows into a comfortable family room, with a wall-mounted flat-screen television, flanked by built-in shelving, with a vaulted ceiling and arched windows that echo the great room.
This room leads to a guest suite, with bedroom and a bathroom, featuring Han-stone quartz counters and a glassed-in show-er. The area is separated from the family room by a barn-board door, allowing it to be completely closed off. The couple sees poten-tial in this for a granny suite for aging parents or a temporary abode for in-transition kids or future grandkids.
Between the kitchen and dining room, a hallway leads to a mudroom, powder room and entrance to the oversized two-car garage as well as stairs to the lower level.
This level includes a recessed home theatre and spacious recreation area plus two guest bedrooms and a bathroom.
Linda has decorated the lower bed-rooms in themes. The “Ocean View” room has a wall mural that depicts glass doors lead-ing to a wooden deck and boardwalk to the ocean shore. In the other bedroom, soft pas-tel hues and teak furnishings create what she
calls the “Bali” room. Outside pits have been dug away from the foundation to allow for larger bedroom windows that let in a flood of natural light.
The house features concrete walls that are a signature feature for Oke Woodsmith, creating a warm and cozy atmosphere even on cold, wintry days.
A portico with wood and stone pillars leads to the front porch entrance. The exter-ior is clad in Maibec wood siding in Jeffer son Tan, with staggered cedar shingles in taupe. Accents of natural bed ledgerock were custom ized by Bill Doktor Masonry from Wyoming.
The roof is Canadian Driftwood Tim-berline HD shingles. oke
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 23
The front foyer flows into the rear great room with its cozy gas fireplace.
The master bedroom and adjacent indoor hot tub provide a perfect place to relax and unwind after a busy day.
So Oke Woodsmith came
up with another unique
design feature, Linda
says. They installed an
L-shaped staircase behind
the kitchen cabinetry
and a catwalk around two
sides of the kitchen to
access the loft.
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A product and a partnership that make sense
Hambro floor systems, a product of Canam, has been providing concrete flooring for residential projects throughout Canada and the United states for more than four decades.
oke Woodsmith building systems, based in Grand bend, ontario, has developed a specialty in building homes with Insu-lated Concrete forms (ICf) and is constantly sourcing the best quality products to incorporate into those projects.
so the long-term relationship between the two companies makes perfect sense, says slobodan Kukic, Hambro’s National sales manager.
“When it comes to concrete floor systems, Hambro is the best option out there,” Kukic says. “any time people want sys-tems like ICf, or they want in-floor heating, a concrete system like Hambro makes a lot of sense.”
there are a number of reasons.It’s easy and quick to install. With Hambro’s patented steel
joist support, the system requires less concrete and reinforcing steel than conventional slabs, saving on-site construction time. It also allows long spans and shallow profiles without shoring, reducing the number of load-bearing walls.
all this reduces the cost. In fact, Kukic says the Hambro system is “a fraction of the cost of traditional cast-in-place concrete.”
furthermore, it can be installed on any type of structure and offers maximum rigidity and strength.
It’s also a non-combustible material with highly rated acoustical properties.
“Not many steel and concrete systems on the market have such superior fire and sound properties as Hambro,” Kukic says. “It’s very simple and, at the end of the day, you have a solid concrete floor with all the attributes like fire safety and great acoustics.”
Hambro’s forte is installing its floor systems in multi-family residential projects such as apartment and condominium build-ings, senior care facilities, hotels, motels and affordable and student housing. While those comprise about 80 per cent of the business, he says the number of single-family dwellings they are working on has been increasing.
“When we do single family, we do high-end, ultra-custom homes,” he says. “We are doing more of these homes lately. the ICf industry is growing as the economy is improving and people are building better quality.”
this is an area where the relationship with oke Woodsmith is key. the building company is noted for its ICf construction in single-family homes. an example is a recently completed 10,000-plus-square-foot summer home on the lake Huron shoreline (pictured here), constructed for a michigan family. thus, it’s a business partnership that’s certain to continue
and grow well into the future.
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26 | oke woodsmith, 2014
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At Home In Huron Woods
28 | oke woodsmith, 2014
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519-235-1449 Bus b 519-235-4542 Fax b www.exeterforsale.com b E-mail: [email protected]
Proud to be involved in marketing Oke Woodsmith’s Stone Meadows condos
and single family model homes along the shores of Lake Huron.
Tabove leFT: between the foyer and open-concept kitchen and great room, a circular staircase with wood rail and decorative spindles sweeps down to the home’s lower level.
above cenTRe: The front door with arched transom and sidelight windows enters to an expansive foyer with cathedral ceiling.
above RighT: The kitchen island is functional with seating for four and a generous workspace with double sink.
below: The kitchen’s ‘Soft Chamois’ cabinetry and light granite counters, balanced by the dark flooring and island base, creates an appearance of modern casual elegance.
There’s an “ah” moment every time Jane and Mark Chandler pull into the winding drive of their new Grand Bend home.
“It’s ‘ah, we’re here. We’re home,’” Jane says. “It just gets better and better.”
The Oakville couple were looking for the ideal location to build their retirement home when they discovered this lot, three years ago, in the Huron Woods neighbourhood, a forested enclave just east of Pinery Provincial Park.
They had considered Muskoka, where Jane’s parents have a home, but didn’t relish the long drive that involved. Mark had grown up in near-by Dashwood, so the Grand Bend area was familiar.
They couldn’t be happier with the choice. It’s a secluded site, sur-rounded by mature trees, yet just a five-minute walk to the Lake Huron beach.
“It’s so tranquil and quiet here,” Mark says.“And there are no black flies!” Jane adds, referencing Muskoka’s in-
sect menace.Both avid golfers, they appreciate the proximity of several premiere
courses. And, “the beach is stunning,” Jane says. “I feel like I’m in Cape Cod or Florida when I’m there. I love the location. I love the view from our house.”
They also love the home, designed and constructed by Oke Woodsmith Building Systems. The Chandlers knew the company’s reputation and maintain it was the perfect builder to help them realize their vision.
They wanted an atmosphere of casual elegance, a place where they could entertain friends and also a comfortable place to spend family times, a place where their daughters, Lauren and Paige, could bring friends and, eventually, their own families.
“We had a wish list,” Jane says. “And when we saw the plans, everything we wanted was there. We just did a little bit of tweak-ing. It’s just fabulous. And, the girls love it.”
The home’s character starts with the exterior. Clad with rough pine board and batten siding, stucco and an abundance of manufactured stone, it blends seamlessly into its natural setting.
A covered porch, with peaked roof, leads to the front door with its arched transom and sidelight windows.
Inside, the foyer leads to an open-concept great room and kitchen and dining area.
A vaulted ceiling carries through from the foyer to the great room, while a recessed tray ceiling over the dining area delineates it from the great room and the kitchen with its lower ceiling.
A wall of windows in the great room overlooks the rear yard and wooded area beyond. The focal point of this room is a floor-to-
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TESTIMONIAL“I wish to express my gratitude
for the tremendous work that you did landscaping my lakeside property.
I am thrilled with the final results and I am looking forward to next spring and summer so that we can all enjoy
the fruits of our labour. You have a talented, professional team and it was a pleasure working with you all.”
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Ask about our Lakeshore Tram Systems. They provide your lakefront property with a safe and easy access to the beach.
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oke woodsmith, 2014 | 31
ceiling, cream-coloured stone fireplace with a dark wood mantel separating the gas insert from a flat-screen television mounted above. The mantel is echoed in picture shelves on the wall between the fireplace and rear window.
The adjacent dining area and kitchen is a multi-functional area, perfect for meal-making and entertaining, Jane says. She loves the abundant space, noting that she can seat 14 at the long harvest dining table. Four more can sit at the kitchen island.
In the kitchen, ‘Soft Chamois’ cabinets, by Woody’s Custom Cabinetry from London, and Bianco Antico granite counters – white laced with veins of browns and greys – are offset by dark wood in the island base. Upper illuminated display cabi-nets, a taupe tile backsplash and stainless steel appliances all add to the ambiance of modern casual elegance.
The colours for the cabinetry, doors and trim actually evolved from the floor-ing, Jane notes.
“I love my floor!” she says, explaining that she had a definite idea of what she wanted but it took considerable time to find just the right product.
The Chandlers finally discovered the black fumed oak, from Vintage Hard-wood Flooring, dark brown planks interspersed with streaks of lighter browns and blonds, and installed it through the main areas on both the upper and lower levels of the home.
From the dining area, patio doors open to an outdoor stamped concrete deck that stretches across the back of the house, with a built-in barbecue at one end, and rimmed with a glass rail anchored by stone pillars.
It’s a favourite place to kick back and relax and enjoy the scenery.“We’re out there all the time,” Mark says.“It’s our second living room,” Jane agrees.It also showcases one of Mark’s contributions to the home – a state-of-the-art
sound system that’s wired through the entire house. On the deck, speakers are em-bedded in some of the stone posts, providing complete surround sound.
“The sound is incredible,” Jane says, crediting her husband with taking the time to make it really special.
Barn-style doors from the dining area lead to the master bedroom retreat and ensuite bathroom.
The bedroom is a peaceful oasis, decorated in soft pastels, with an abundance of natural light from the large rear window, two side windows and a walkout to the deck.
The bathroom’s ‘Soft Chamois’ cabinets are offset by rich chocolate brown Cambria quartz counters. It also features a glassed-in shower and freestanding tub angled beneath corner windows. The bedroom and bathroom are joined by an ex-pansive walk-in closet with built-in shelving.
1. In the master ensuite bathroom, a freestanding tub is angled beneath corner windows overlooking the treed side yard.2. barn-style doors close off the master bedroom retreat from the adjacent dining area and kitchen.3. The spacious dining area, with seating for 14 at a long harvest table, also opens to the deck.4. The master bedroom is a peaceful oasis, decorated in soft pastels with an abundance of natural light from rear and side windows.
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On the opposite side of the great room is a guest suite with a bedroom and bathroom with a shower.
Behind the kitchen, a laundry room and mudroom complete the 2,363-square-foot main level. This area also has access from the double garage and a stairway leading to a loft above the garage.
The loft was not in the original plans, Jane says. But the Oke Woodsmith team suggested making use of the space. Its current purpose is to provide an of-fice for Mark but, in future, it could be an additional bedroom or playroom for grandchildren.
Between the foyer and the great room, a curved wooden staircase sweeps down to the home’s 1,448-square-foot lower level, with 915 square feet finished.
This level has nine-foot ceilings. The surrounding landscape was dug out to allow for full-size windows and a walkout. “We didn’t want it to feel like a base-ment,” Jane says.
The central area, here, is a recreation room with wet bar and a games area. Outside the recreation room is a covered patio with a hot tub and beyond
that the Chandlers have created a stone patio with a rockery wall for a fire pit, the perfect place to relax on summer evenings.
From the games area, double barn-style doors lead to a bedroom wing for the girls. Two bedrooms – one with a large window facing the rear yard and the other with front corner windows – have an adjoining bathroom with shower and white cabinet topped with a cream and brown quartz counter.
Across the recreation room is another guest bedroom.Jane says the lower level is designed with their daughters in mind. They can
bring friends and have an area for their own entertaining. There’s also access to an outdoor shower for washing off the sand after a day at the beach.
And, she adds, there’s plenty of space to expand in the future. Current stor-age areas could be transformed for other uses, such as a media room.
While the home is currently a weekend and summer retreat, the Chandlers look forward to spending increasing amounts of time there.
They are enjoying the Huron Woods community, which boasts its own club-house, hosting events from Halloween parties and New Year’s Eve galas to regular coffee klatches and get-togethers. The Chandlers recently attended a welcome event for new residents and were overwhelmed by the friendliness of their neigh-bours.
“This isn’t a cottage per se. It’s a home,” Mark says. “It’s definitely a long-term commitment.”
“And, it truly is our dream home,” Jane adds. oke
32 | oke woodsmith, 2014
FRoM The Top:1 & 2. The home, clad in siding, stucco and an abundance of manufactured stone blends into its natural surroundings. 3. The master ensuite bathroom has ‘Soft Chamois’ cabinetry, offset by rich chocolate brown quartz counters. 4. A spacious laundry room features built-in cabinets and a quartz counter. 5. The Chandlers spend much time in good weather enjoying the rear stamped concrete deck that stretches across the back of the house, with a glass rail anchored by stone pillars.
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“Builder/Contractor Specialists”
519-452-32201910 Huron Street
at Clarke Road
Mon-Fri 9 to 5 Sat 9 to 1
Our cabinets are supplied by Aya Kitchens in Mississauga
www.ayakitchens.com
34 | oke woodsmith, 2014
– B E F O R E S H O T S –
A rebuilt cottage in a mature Grand bend subdivision incorporates modern convenience while maintaining the character of the neighbourhood
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 35
GrowingCottagethe
Top leFT: The kitchen’s maple cabinetry with custom glaze is distressed for a worn appearance but offset by Cambria quartz countertops and patterned porcelain tile backsplash as well as warm hickory hardwood flooring.
Top RighT: Throughout the main level, ‘Revere Pewter’ colour walls and a white beadboard ceiling with accent crossbeams create a spacious and airy atmosphere.
boTToM leFT: The front foyer features a trap door to a crawl space. A secret door in the panels under the open stairway also accesses the space.
boTToM RighT: The comfortable master bedroom overlooks the front lawn and street through a dormer gable window.
Scan here to view more photos of this home and
others in our portfolio.
36 | oke woodsmith, 2014
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WWhen Mark and Clare Schmehl realized they and their children were outgrowing their cottage, they had to make a decision. They decided they wanted to keep the cottage in Grand Bend, long a favourite vacation destination.
But expanding presented challenges. The lot was small and munici-pal setback regulations restricted how wide they could go. In addition, the Schmehls wanted to preserve the extensive landscaping and vegeta-tion, which included a cobblestone entertainment area in the backyard.
The team at Oke Woodsmith Building Systems proved equal to the challenge.
The single-storey cottage was rebuilt in the footprint of the original, expanding upward with a second level.
The Schmehls couldn’t be happier with the result, now a finalist in the Canadian Home Builders Association awards for renovations of $250,000-$500,000.
“It’s amazing,” Clare Schmehl enthuses.It wasn’t, however, surprising to the couple.A few years ago, they toured a London Health Sciences lottery
dream home in Grand Bend, constructed by Oke Woodsmith.
“When we went through, I said ‘if we ever need to build this is who I’m going to use’,” Clare says. “It was very good quality and they have a style that I really like.”
In addition to staying within the foot-print of the original structure, the Schmehls like that the new cottage suits the established neighbourhood, north of the town’s centre.
“Adding a second storey and recladding the exterior made the cottage blend well with the streetscape and is more proportion-ate to the surrounding cottages. We chose the Craftsman style to blend with the heri-tage cottages in this community,” says Randy Oke, partner in Oke Woodsmith with broth-ers Wayne and Kevin. “It has the feel of a pe-riod cottage.”
“It looks like it belongs – new, but like it’s been there forever,” says Clare.
The exterior Maibec wood siding, in Federal Blue complimented with white trim, natural cedar shakes and cultured stone, gives the cottage a “coastal feel,” says Oke Woodsmith designer Steve Poortinga.
And, Oke adds, combining the siding in a horizontal/vertical pat-tern adds interest.
Enviroshake roof shingles have the natural look of cedar but are actu-ally a maintenance-free product, manufactured from recycled materials, and carry a lifetime warranty, something Clare and Mark appreciate. A guest bunkie and shed were given matching roofs.
The family also loves that the spacious, partially-covered front porch was preserved. “That’s a key spot,” Clare says. “We sit there all the time, turn on the gas fire pit and read or play Scrabble.”
The open main floor, with 624 square feet of living space, flows from the front porch to the rear deck, through a large patio door added to the kitchen dining area.
A two-piece powder room is tucked behind the stairway providing facilities for guests on the main floor.
above: The Schmehl youngsters, ages 10 and 12, each have their own second-storey bedroom overlooking the rear yard.
RighT: Off the dining area, patio doors lead to the rear deck and barbecue.
below: In the divided main bathroom, porcelain tiles resembling planks create a rustic look for the tub/shower surround.
38 | oke woodsmith, 2014
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TThe former pine paneling was replaced with light-coloured walls and a white beadboard ceiling accented with cross beams. This adds to the spacious atmosphere, as does the addition of large west- and south-facing windows, which flood the space with natural light.
The light colouring is balanced by the warm wood tones of hickory hardwood flooring from London’s Under Foot Inc.
In the kitchen, Woody’s Custom Cabinetry, from London, installed new maple cabinets with a custom glaze, then distressed them to give an older, worn appearance, in keeping with the cottage character. The Cambria quartz countertops, with a subtle weaving of white and light greys, are offset by a backsplash of patterned porcelain tiles, in shades of blues and burgundies.
The tiles, along with those in the upstairs bathroom, were imported from Spain and are one of Clare’s favourite elements in the new cottage.
“A designer in Oakville (where the family’s permanent home is lo-cated) said the tiles would match my funky style and she was right!” Clare enthuses.
From the foyer, an open staircase leads to the 631-square-foot sec-ond floor with three bedrooms and the bathroom. “The second storey could not be added over the entire width of the cottage due to the side lot setbacks but the flow from the main floor to the second floor works well with the open staircase,” Poortinga says.
A large rear shed dormer was added so the Schmehl children could each have their own room on the north side of the home, both furnished with bunk beds for visiting friends.
A large front gable dormer was added to accommodate the cozy master bedroom, with two spacious closets.
The upper bathroom was divided so that more than one family member could use it at the same time. It includes a double vanity with the same Cambria quartz counter as the kitchen. The shower/tub surround features imported tiles that resemble wood planks, giving a rustic appearance.
The original cottage had a small crawl space. Oke Woodsmith dug the foundation down to five feet and finished it with a concrete floor to provide additional capacity for the mechani-cals, including the 95-per-cent efficiency gas furnace and a humidifica-tion unit for improved indoor air quality.
Although the space is accessed via a trap door in the foyer floor, an opening with a ladder was also created through one of the panels under the stairway for quick and easy entry.
The Schmehl youngsters have found the space a great place to hang out on rainy days. “It’s like a little cave for them,” their mother says.
The design process developed rather quickly, after the initial meet-ing. Oke Woodsmith was able to surmise the needs of the Schmehls and the challenges of the property. The company worked with the local munic-ipal officials from the inception of the design to ensure that the proposed work would fall within the municipal requirements. Correspondence throughout the design and construction was primarily accomplished through email in order for the project to remain on schedule since the Schmehls live in Oakville.
Clare credits Oke Woodsmith with many of the features that incor-porate the cottage atmosphere with a modern home.
“Oke Woodsmith has a lot of really good design ideas. We love our cottage!” Clare concludes. oke
Top: Maibec wood siding on the cottage’s exterior has been installed in a horizontal and vertical combination to add interest and the blue colour gives it a coastal character.
boTToM: The patterned kitchen backsplash porcelain tiles, in shades of blues and burgundies, were imported from Spain.
40 | oke woodsmith, 2014
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42 | oke woodsmith, 2014BEFORE
Scan here to view more photos of this renovation and others in our portfolio.
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 43
THERE ARE pICTuRES OF THAT, says company president Dan MacLachlan.
The building has evolved over the years and has been used for a number of purposes – including a grocery store, restaurant and apartments – before MacLachlan turned it into an insurance office 25 years ago.
But a recent facelift by Oke Woodsmith Building Systems has brought the structure into the 21st century with a thorough-ly modern appearance.
“It looks like a brand new building,” MacLachlan says. “Hardly a day goes by without someone commenting on it.”
It wasn’t initially intended to be such an extensive facelift, he says. “It was one of those projects that just kept going and going. It snowballed from replacing the front windows to brick-work, then siding and so on.”
But he allows that the white siding and multi-coloured brickwork that had clad the building for 30 to 40 years was get-ting tired looking.
Oke Woodsmith replaced the front brick wall with Lam-ina stacked stone, in Margaux beige, a combination of brown, beige, grey and gold tones, from Pantene Building Supplies in London.
Two-tone brown siding, from London’s Gentek Building Supplies, installed in a vertical/horizontal pattern gives an eye-catching appearance to the rest of the building, MacLachlan believes.
The vertical board and batten siding on the lower portion of the building and in the front peak is a nut brown called Dark Drift. Horizontal clapboard on the upper portion is a lighter Pebble brown.
The roof was replaced with Regent Grey sheet metal from Exeter’s Andex Metal Products.
A front picture window and patio door on the side wall of the front office that opened into a garden were replaced with three windows along the front and two on the side, all finished with white trim for a clean, modern look.
One of the most striking changes to office’s façade was the new sign.
The previous signage was a red awning with white lettering, lit from behind. The new version is a stucco panel that stretches the width of the building with dark raised lettering.
BEFORE
A hundred years ago, the building that now houses MacLachlan Insurance Inc. in Thedford was carted into town on a horse and buggy.
New Face On Heritage
HMS Insurance &Financial Services Inc.
MacLachlan Insurance Inc.
Home b Auto Commercial
Farm b Boats b Life
67 Main St., Thedford, ON519-296-5593 / 1-888-970-5555
30 - 81 Crescent St., Grand Bend, ON519-238-2692 / 1-888-281-2111
197 Parkhill Main St., Parkhill, ON519-294-6871 / 1-877-294-9666
Serving Your Community for Over 80 Yearswww.hmsinsurance.com
RONA Cashway Zurich www.rona.caHwy 84, Zurich, Ontario
phone 519-236-4393 hours: 8-5 mon-fri; 8-3 sat;
closed sunday
Helping you with all your home projects!
44 | oke woodsmith, 2014
oke woodsmith, 2014 | 45
It was designed by Oke Woodsmith and constructed and installed by O’Brien Designs from Zurich, a small company that Oke Woodsmith often uses, says Ran-dy Oke, who operates the business in part-nership with brothers Wayne and Kevin.
“I was really impressed that they were even able to create the little insurance bip-per three dimensionally,” Oke notes, ref-erencing the blanket-wrapped figure that denotes the Insurance Broker Identity Pro-gram. O’Brien’s were also able to create the three dimensional logo for HMS Insur-ance and Financial Services, MacLachlan’s parent company.
The sign is lit from overhead with three old-fashioned style wall-mounted lights, sourced from Living Lighting in London.
Replacing the sign was the one thing MacLachlan said he was hesitant about, being partial to the former awning.
“But now I think it’s the best thing that they did,” he enthuses. “It’s made a huge difference. It ties everything together.”
MacLachlan says he chose Oke Wood-smith to do the renovation work because he has worked with them in the past and has always been pleased with the results.
“They are a high end builder,” he says. “And they pay attention to the details. They will notice little problems and fix them as they go along.”
And, he’s thrilled with the new ap-pearance of his office.
“I really like everything that they did. It all gives a new character to the building.”
BEFORE
BEFORE
BEFORE
“They are a high end builder,” he says.
“And they pay attention to the details. They will
notice little problems and fix them as they go along.”
46 | oke woodsmith, 2014
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534 Ontario St. ph: 519-845-0208P.O. Box 588 fax: 519-845-3737Wyoming, ON N0N 1T0 email: [email protected]
Phillippians 2:5-11
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P.O. Box 9, 70964 Bluewater Highway 21, Grand Bend, Ontario ~ 519-238-8893 www.okewoodsmith.com ~ [email protected]
InnovatIve RenovatIonslet us help you envision the possibilities!
Taking advantage of the view along the St Clair river was forefront in the addition and changes
A modest vacation retreat becomes a gracious Craftsman Style home
Modernizing and personalizing a small century home in the middle of an
urban setting
Moving would have meant exchanging their 100 ft frontage and their view of
a beautiful ash forest
Turning a simple cottage into a year round retreat overlooking one of the world’s best sunsets
The need to retire and enjoy the northwesterly view of Lake Huron inspired this renovation
Before Before
Before Before
Before Before
