The Engraved House, Part 1: Exterior

When I went on the Glebe House Tour in September, I was fascinated by one of the houses on the tour, The Engraved House. So I was thrilled that the homeowners agreed to do an interview with me for my blog, because I’d be able to see their home. If you saw the pictures in my post about the tour over at DesignTies, you’re probably as anxious as I was to see the interior. And trust me, the interior is just as unique and fascinating as the exterior!

But you’re going to have to be patient to see the inside, because I’m going to write two posts about The Engraved House – Part 1 will focus on the exterior, and Part 2 on the interior. I know, I’m a tease! But there’s so much to tell and show you, it won’t all fit into one post!

The Engraved House was originally built as a confectionery in 1901. Artist Christopher Griffin discovered it in 2001 when he was doing volunteer work for the Green Party – they were using the first floor of the building as their headquarters. The second floor was being used as a rooming house. Christopher ended up renting the main floor for his art studio, and then after months of nagging the owner about selling the building to him, the owner said yes. The Engraved House was officially sold to Christopher and and his wife Oresta on September 4th, 2001. And according to this calendar page that Christopher later found, the owner was happy for them to take it off his hands!

Why Hassel Castel ? Because the tenants were not the neatest or the cleanest. I don’t have pictures of how the place looked when Christopher and Oresta bought it, but trust me, it was NOT pretty! This is how the exterior of The Engraved House looked  {Image from Dwell}

And this is how it looks today {Image from Dwell}

As you can see, they replaced the left window on the second floor so all four windows now match. They also replaced all the stucco siding, and they added a “green” canopy above the porch to Oresta’s shop. The canopy wraps around the house and continues above the porch that leads to their home on the second floor.

The interior renovation of the building started in 2001, just after Christopher and Oresta bought the building. The exterior renovation was done recently, and incorporates reclaimed 1” wood thick wood planks from the interior walls.

The stucco had to be replaced, and Christopher came up with the idea to create sketches in the new exterior material. He mentioned his idea to the architect that they were working with, who basically poo-poo’d Christopher’s idea. Time to move on to another architect!

Andrew Reeves of LineBox Studio was much more receptive to Christopher's idea, and figured out a way to bring his vision to reality. Mr. Reeves came up with the idea to clad the exterior in panels of concrete, and Christopher introduced him to the idea of using fly-ash concrete. Fly-ash concrete is a byproduct of coal-fired electric power generation that traditionally ends up in landfills, so it’s a good green choice. It had never been used in Ottawa before. They brought Bill Riseborough, who fabricates concrete countertops, onto the project, and he helped make Christopher’s plan to use fly-ash concrete a reality.

Two trowellers put the fly-ash on the walls, and Christopher followed right behind them to create his sketches, using an old bone as his carving tool. {Second image from Dwell}

Christopher had an average of about seven minutes to complete the carving on each panel before the fly-ash became too dry. His sketches reflect his love for primitive art, and were dictated by the fly-ash and drying time. The carvings on each side of the house represent the four elements. The sun is fire:

Birds are air:

A caribou is land:

And a whale is water:

The architect suggested running the cedar fence boards horizontally instead of vertically.

The horizontal cedar boards are also used on the back of the house and the upper deck.

The spaces between the slats let some light onto the deck while providing privacy.

When the asphalt around the base of the building was excavated, it created a big drop between the wooden steps to the door of the home and ground level. To solve this problem, they used large stones for the bottom two steps to fill in the gap.

Christopher retained the building’s history in a few ways. The names of the building over the years are stamped onto concrete tablets using an old metal typface.

The original bill of sale for the building is stamped onto the coal shaft door, which Christopher and Oresta preserved when they did the exterior makeover.

And Christopher stamped the names of all the owners of the property over the years on the sun wall.

Notice the “stolen by The Crown” brick – damn government!

And that’s the exterior of The Engraved House. Isn’t it fascinating? Hassel Castel no more – although Christopher did immortalize the name in the fly-ash above the door to the deck:

So are you curious to see what The Engraved House looks like inside? Next Monday’s post will be about the interior – you won’t want to miss it! There are some super-cool things to see…

* Final reminder that Bake-N-Blog:Holiday Edition is happening this Wednesday, December 1st. It’s not too late to participate, as long as you can bake fast! Go here for all the details, and go here to see the list of participants and what they’re baking. And to all the B-N-B participants, don’t forget to upload your post in time for the start of the party Wednesday morning!

Linking up to Susan’s weekly Metamorphosis Monday blog party at Between Naps on the Porch. Be sure to head over to Susan’s place to see lots of other cool transformations.