Low Down Articles
Houses of the Gatineau Hills
Low Down Articles
Houses of the Gatineau Hills
Article 62 of 74
This article first appeared in the "Houses of the Gatineau Hills" column in the February 22, 2006 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
o o o
Log home reborn from the ashes of fire damage
By Paulette Peirol
It was, of all nights, Halloween.
Jody Nassr awoke to the sound of crackling, and thought it was her son taking a shower. Half-dazed, she got up and went into the hallway: Huge, orange flames were licking the window just above her sleeping children, and smoke was pushing in. "Fire," she screamed, getting everyone out of the house. She tried to return for clothes, then gave up when she realized how thick and dangerous the smoke was. Nassr and her husband, Art Low, still live in that home, built almost 20 years ago out of 12-inch thick pine logs. Had the walls not been so thick, their children would likely have died, the insurance adjuster later said.
To this day, no-one knows for sure how the blaze began. Possibly, a spark escaped through the chimney. The family had lived there exactly a year, moving in on Halloween, 2001. "It was a freak thing," Low says.
Most of the second floor was destroyed, and the wood floors, wiring, windows and some of the walls on the main floor were also badly damaged.
The family found a neighboring home in Chelsea to rent for another five months. Meantime, as contractors worked to repair the damage, Low and Nassr made small but significant architectural changes to the home, using the fire as an opportunity for some judicious remodeling. What was once a fairly typical log home, with long, dark hallways and small rooms, became a more open space where traffic and light flows freely and areas are largely communal.
During the renovation, a top-floor bedroom became a bright, open sitting room with no enclosing wall. A galley kitchen, mostly closed off to the living room was also dramatically opened. And the walkout basement, which Low was in the process of renovating before the fire, became the music and play room that was initially planned. A side door and deck were added, where a window once stood, and a mud room became Low's office.
Low also decided to strip the dark stain on the logs, basically hand-planing them, several feet at a time. The outside was cleaned with pressurized water, and Low used some of the old, burned logs to reinforce his front balcony and make a raised vegetable garden.
Refurnishing the house was another challenge that the couple turned into an opportunity. Lacking money to buy new, top-of-the-line furnishings, yet desiring quality and style, they scoured garage sales, newspaper classifieds, consignment stores, and auctions to find just the right pieces and bring them to life. "It's become my hobby since the fire, to find good-quality furniture at good prices," Nassr says. "Literally everything in this house, minus a carpet or two, is second-hand." Relying on their imagination, they've turned an antique Chinese chest and an old wooden ice box into bathroom cabinets, one with a marble top salvaged from a hospital. Stand-alone cabinets and enclosed bookshelves house everything from stereo gear to dry goods in the kitchen.
One of their novel finds is an old workbench with a steel top, made of 2x4s and painted an industrial red. Nassr thought it would make a perfect kitchen island. Her husband thought she was crazy. She paid $20, they heaved it on the roof of their car, and today it stands proudly in their kitchen, looking fabulous. "I've come to think of this as one of the coolest things," bow concedes.
Sometimes he's the one with the inspiration and it's her who needs convincing - like the time they purchased a rusty claw-foot tub for the bathroom. Low sanded off the rust, and Nassr gave him a yellow paint chip and sent him off to Reno Depot. Turns out, there was some road paint the exact same colour there. And, you guessed it - the tub looks great, and the paint will stand up (remaining text not available).