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laboriofnlove the examiner Tuesday Jan 1978 By BRIAN BAKER ORILLIA Monty and Grace nee Crooks Leigh of Eight Mile Point Road Orillia hard working committee members of the Orillia Historical Society and the Simcoe County Historical Society have done more than just talk about preservation of historical buildings They actually bought an abandoned twostorey log house and moved it to the Leigh farm jtst south of Orillia restoring it as their own home After his marriage to Mrs Leigh in 1971 Leigh let his married daughter move into tie original farm house and tie Leighs lived on oldwaipr Roadfor awhile Then they considered pur chasing prefab home to live back on the farm where they could once again enjoy the country being keen naturalists Then the thought stnick them why not buy log house maybe put two or three small together Fruitlesslv they drove up and down Sideroads and backroads trying to locate suitable log house Quue by chance while Leigh was waiting in the Drillia bus ter minal Mrs Thompson came over and asked him if he knew anyody who would be interested in purchasing log house She was 3113 Alex Thompson and on her husbands farm Adrtrea stood log house built by his great grandfather Thomas Wood in about 155 SLRII DO wasnt second in an swering sure do chuckled Leigh But for the life of me couldnt figure out where they would have log house having known their end of the road when was boy it turned mt the log house was covered with shiplapped board siding and what we had always thought was frame house was actually log housc Although the house had been abondoned for thirty years and an inch of dust had ac cumulated over the floor the outer covering of boards had preserved the log walls in almost perfect condition and it was exactly what they were lookingfor They had it professionally moved by house movers on house transporter The men who moved it estimated its weight at about 20 tons By the time they had moved it the 13 miles to its present site on Eight Mile Point Road they were sure it weighed 40 tons even though what seemed like tons of in terior lath and plaster had been stripped from the walls to reduce the weight MOVED INTACT Fortunately the house could be moved intact Just the roof and the top log had to be collapsed to bring it under the maximum 18 feet needed to clearutility Wires The house was set on mnncrete foundation on the lee side of Leighs Sugar bush Now tin real work of renovating began Leigh started off by removing any remaining plaster and chinking material and completely rechinked or plastered spaces between the logs Mrs Leigh swept and cleaned floors until she though the job would never be done as dust of the ages and resulting from moving and renovations kept taking the place of that she had thi cleaned up The walls of the house inside and out had been painted with whitewash in its early years and ms an naa to be pain stakingly sanded and sand blasted off The livingroom floor had deteriorated to point where it had to be replaced with another floor fortunately antique wood could be found to replace it Lumber from more recent addition to the house supplied material to build mudroom and utility room as the back entrance to the house and the wide boards left over from this sandblasted to leave nice golden rustic appearance made panelling around the interior walls of the livingroom and along the supper hallway MORE IIEAD ROOM In replacing the roof they added one extra log around the house to give more head room in the upstairs bedrooms guest room and bathroom The stairs were never moved or changed only the left hand wall of the front entrance hall has omitted to give the livingroom more open spacious appca rancc The ground floor containi livingroom parlor used as study diningroorn and kitchen The modern torripnct kit Cheri features range refrigerator sinks hinlt In wpboards and sparI sailing shelves In the basement beneath the kitchen is fruit cellar well stocked with homemade preserves including pickles jams and canned tnnt in cluding wild cranberries picked right on the property OUTSTANDING Outstanding is the livingroom occupying one half of the ground floor Dominating this room is huge stone fireplace along the south wall complete with crane tor swingingjron cooking pots over the fire log racks brush and tongs set bellows fire bench even huge maple sugar kettle used for firewood container Above is the traditional mantle on which shelf clock tirelessly ticks away One end of the room is fur nished with an early oak table and chairs Against the wall behind it is buffet and an officers chest made in two pieces for easy handling in the itiitis when being shipped from England or from one military or naval establishment to another An early Chesterfield fits nicely along the side of the stairway Even the three handing ceiling lamps date back to the mid18005 including pulldown latnp for easy refueling and black metal hall lamp One of the standing lamps pressed glass model is iden tical to one seen in the restored home of McKenzie King hooked rug and Mennonite rag rug are equally in keeping withthe mid1800s Two French doors and gieat entrance door surrounded by glassed sidelights and overhead transome fill the from of the ground floor with another 15pane south window letting floods of warm sunshine into the livingroom The front door is entirely original However since French doors tend to be drafty iii winter the Leighs replaCed thcm with windows of the samc designand size All windows are double glazed as combination storm Windows NOIIIINO MODERN As you can see we have nothing that would look too modern and out of place remarked Mrs Leigh ne modern piece of fur niture could spoil the entire effect We even used wooden drape rods As for walls why cover up those fine timbers when that is what our whole idea is about in the first place The depth of timber forms its own insulation The attic atid other placcs where necessary arc hcavily insulated with nickwool What really worried me was how would we beat the house Without spoiling the look of the place Wllh electric heaters all over the place said Leigh The builder solved the problem by suggesting that we put radiant heating right in the ceiling plaster This we did and we have individual thermostats in each room so that we can keep each room at whatever temperature we want with great saving in hydro costs lpstairs finds delightful landing and hallway lined with pine boards At the far end of the hall stands spinning wheel Pine drawings of the Coldwater Musical Barn Turnbulls Rock Lighthouse Martyrs Shrine Hope Island and other Simcoe County historical sites decorate the walls In each of the three bedrooms expensive clothes closets go deep into the kneewalls where the roof ctcatcs cozy effect by cutting down across the outer walls of the rooms The master bedroom is largest and has sunny south outlook The guest room features dresser quilted bed washstand and threepiece china toilet set in greenbrown pattern At both ends of the hallway original glassed doors lead out onto large balconies one to the west one to the east The three piece bathroom is located conveniently just off the head of the stairs WILL REPLACE Some of the original door hardware including locks were worn or did not work and had to be replaced with modern fixtures but the Leighs hope to eventually replace these again with antique hardware in keeping with the rest of the house Outside Leigh is particularly proud of the winch king post decorating the front root dormer He is also pleased with the front verandah and the lugc slabs of granite paving stones split from rocks found on the farm Believe me said Leigh putting his hand to his brow it had better be good for lost lot of sweat putting those stories in The country surroundings please the lxiighs too Their wellstocked winter bird feeding stations are well patronized by chickadees mthatches yellow evening grosbeaks woodpeckers juncos jays and finches Bringing the post back to life It is not unusual for them to see foxes rabbits chipmunks and other wildlife from their windows They have just built pond to attract other wildlife like ducks redwinged blackbirds amphibians and water life and Like Christmas card scene the Leighs home blends with scenery they may stock it with goldfish Adding touch of the good old days is an early ironwheclcd wmdenspoked wagon sitting in the yard nearby Mrs Leigh has made historic house log for which she has obtained photos and history dating back scvcnly lo hundred years including sonic of the first occupants of the house including the builder of the house Thomas and Annie nee Moncki Wood Mrs Woods father relative of the first Governor iciicial ot taiindn Lord liziilcs Moiick also livcl his last years in this house There are photos showing how the house looked at dif feretit periods including people who lived in it One photoshows Alec Woods mother now 85 as girl with her parents in front of the house thcn surrounded by cinntlnli log house is fun to live in and fun to restore concluded the Lcighs It also offers something no modern house can it offers built in history Ann Lenders Word of thanks to nice folks Dear Ann Landers hope you wont think Im crazy but want to thank lot of people and dont know their names Since everyone reads your column maybe they Wlll recognize themselves want to thank all those nice folks who opened doors for me when my arms were full of groceries or packages or babies want to thank the strangers on the street who smile at me and say Good morning when am too shy to smile and speak first want to thank the lady who came up to me when the seat of my car was jammed too far back and asked me if she could help was in such foui mood and the car seat was stuck and it was just one thing too many that day That lady was so nice my bad mood vanished and the rest of the day was wonderful So let this letter be one of thanks to all the good people in the world who go out of their way to do something helpful and kind for strangers without expecting anything in return This may sound ridiculous but want to say love youA anadian Reader Dear Reader Ridiculous Not at all Beautiful Warm heartedl Lovely Youve expressed the true spirit of gener osity and caring The world needs more of it Thank you for reminding us all Dear Ann Landers everywhere Please print it If you dont like children get out of the teaching profession Our children spend great deal of their lives in school and you make them unhappy You also give them poor selfimage and make them hate school All children are not students Those who are dont need your attention nearly as much as those who get Cs D5 and is Instead of calling the poor students lazy or stupid try to find out why they dont understand Dont just ignore them Help them Thats what youre there for Instead of displaying the students papcts it would be good idea to pin up students effort and write across the tq3You are improving What great incentive that would be good teacher cares about all childrennot just the stars The truly bright ones will manage without your extra atten tion Its the ones who have difficulty who need you Please meet the real challenge of your profession or do something elseConcerned Parent Dear fl Well said Thank you for laying it on the This is plea to teachers line Dear Ann Landers The girl our son married is not the one would have picked for him but she is pleasant person and have accepted her For the first year of their marriage she called my husband and me Mr and Mrs asked her not to be so formal and suggested that she call us Mother and Dad Instead she calls us Jane and Harold This rankles me and cant get used to it Should ask our son to talk to herIarsons Kan Dcar Kan No Get used to it Youd be happy to settle ftr Jane and Harold if you knew what some women call their inlaws Erma Bombeck Five wintry unusuoldays Hy MARGARET WORTH Do things with your children the psychologists tell us and youll raise happy family Well perhaps it takes particular kind of insanity to get involved in the sort of things that do with my children Ill give you an example spent five days tthats two and half weekends for those of us who operate on Monday to Friday work basis recently tip to the top of my boots in what can only be lesrribcd as an unusual experience It was all the fault of my tmsty assistant Regular readers may recall that he is the patient young man who lived through the floods and mud of Flesherton with me suppose should have known better but we decided to make llt fiipc thristnias special outsich it had lot going for it Superb script great camera man the cast Ithrcc Worth offspring were very professional the dog Inaturally there was doth behaved like Lassies tutor and yours truly was general dogsbody We overlooked one important factor Weather All we needed was couple of inches of snow and crisp day or two Day one we had minor heat wave and all the snow melted We changed the script Day two all that partly cloudy predicted by the weatherman was descending in large snowly lumps We ignored it Then the light failchVe went home chkcnd number two the snow was down the sun was out the air positively sparkled The wind chill factor was well below survival level We spent one hour out shooting and three hours defrosting Day three blizzard struck We floundered our way through snow drifts almost lost our sevenyearold twice and the dog had to retire temporarily with an injured paw Our final weekend dawned grey and overcast It snowed again The wind whistling down the microphone blocked out voices We reshot and reshot again Toes froze fingers turned blue faces stiffened The portapak battery kept nin ning down Shall even bother to mention the freezing rain It got time though Edited Credited music and voice over till duly and expertly taken care of Then we saw the final result reating something froin aii idea is an exciting phenomena Sharing it with other people makes strong bon ds Maybe the psychologists are right after all and to that patient young maii whose idea and work it all was Thanks Chris Pollys pginigm Museums wt clean art DEAR POLLY Several years ago my husband painted picture for me in oil paint and it is soiled as it was never placed behind glass in frame Can you tell me if this can be cleaned and if so how MARY DEAR MARY Indeed an oil painting can be cleaned and often the change is astounding but it is not job to be done at home Take your painting to professional for cleaning Your local art museum will doubtless give you the name of trustworthy person in your vicinity POLLY DEAR POLLY VA have two Pet Peeves The first is with the fliers that come advertising sales and give no dates for starting and closing The other concerns packaged meat that has all the excess fat and skin tucked underneath the meat so the buyer cannot see it When the elastic on my pantyhose is too tight cut through the elastic by the seam and it does not run and is much more comfortable Also this helps mark the front and back MATILDA DEAR POLLY As the holidays approach make calendar for the small impatient children that they can comprehend For Christmas make Santa face with paper chain that has each day numbered on link in the chain Each day the children remove the link marked with that day and they can count the remaining links and know how many more days until Christmas When receiving gifts of small appliances Such as watches toasters and even toys immediately take the address off the box or warranty card and ptit it in your address book When repairs or parts are needed the address is close at hand LAURELLE DEAR POLLY All year long keep special notebook with WISH BOOK printed on the outside Inside there is page for each member of the family with the name at the top Anytime any of us thinks of anything we would like to have regardless of use price etc We list the item with price color size and where it can be bought under the right name If at some time we receive one of the things as gift or decide We no longer want it the item is crossed out This book is most useful for reference when buying birthday Christmas or any other gifts It is so much nicer to give something one knows is really wanted MRSFM