~ Restoration Project Goals

The goal of this project was to restore the Miller Lash House, the icehouse and the grounds surrounding them to their former glory.

Photo: The Miller Lash House - Circa 1920

Accounts vary as to the year the house was built, but it is probable that the house was begun in 1911 and took until 1913 to complete. The design is a prime example of the Arts & Craft Style. The materials used in building the house were simple, but quite extraordinary at the time.  The walls are constructed of poured concrete, then faced with river stone collected from the Highland Creek bed which meanders by the house. All of the heavy beams and truss work that support the cathedral ceilings and porch roofs are squared pine timbers – no doubt milled on the property.  Natural clay products were used for roof tiling and floor areas both inside and out.  The house was built with wooden framed casement windows and French doors that opened out from three sides of many rooms directly onto the patios. This essentially integrated the interior of the house with the exterior in keeping with the Craftsman principal of making a house harmonious with the natural surroundings.

By the end of the twentieth century, the house and grounds had fallen into disrepair. A leaking roof had caused damage to the walls of several rooms. Water damage was also evident in the basement. Original windows along the west face of the house and original French doors had been inappropriately replaced by picture windows. Aluminum doors replaced wooden doors. Lathe and plaster walls were in great disrepair and in some instances had been removed or replaced by drywall. The floors needed major attention.

Outside the house, once manicured hedges were allowed to grow wild or were ripped out. The perennial gardens had been destroyed. The original patios had been cut away from the house. The swimming pool had been filled in with rubble. There was a gravel parking lot on the west side of the house.

The ice house had been used  for storage. The roof had caved in, there was no floor left and the wall boards were rotten from the floor up to a height of five feet.

The Millennium Project to restore the Miller Lash House has been very successful. As evident in the pictorial essay that follows, the renewed face of the Arts & Crafts house looks just as it did when it was completed in 1913.

~ The Restoration of the House

One of the biggest and most costly elements of restoration was the removal of the picture windows and aluminum doors. The picture windows all along the west face of the house were removed and replaced with solid wood replicas of the original casement windows. 

	Before	After

The picture windows in the Great room were removed and were replaced with  windows that look exactly like the original French doors. They are complemented by non-functional hinges and cremone bolts to add to their authenticity.

Solid wood paneled doors now replace the aluminum screen doors.

The removal of the windows in the kitchen necessitated the removal of  most of the 1960’s cabinetry, which then meant that the walls and window frames and sills had to be replaced. Kitchen plumbing and electrical services needed extensive repair. The floor also needed replacement and these changes have resulted in a kitchen perfectly suited to caterers working events at the Miller Lash House.

		Kitchen Before	Kitchen Before	Kitchen After

The rooms on the first floor of the house needed to be restored. Layers of wallpaper were removed and walls repaired and painted. Trim was scraped back to the original colour and restored. Baseboards and trim were replaced as needed. Washroom floors were replaced and the rooms properly partitioned for multiple users.

Glass tiles cirica 1950, were removed from the main floor washroom, as was a relatively new bathtub. The walls were replaced and a new slate floor was installed. An arborite counter, which had been built around the original pedestal sink, was removed and the sink returned to its former place of honour.

The hallway to the original servants quarters was damaged extensively. A very heavy sliding door placed to cover the stairwell tore the original plaster back to the lathe. The addition of a new drywall partition and short door and door jamb damaged the walls so badly that it required a specialist in two layer applications of cements and plaster over lathe to repair it.

The plaster over lathe had to be restored down the hallway and stairwell where long neglected damage was extensive.  

The two former bedrooms and bathroom on the upper floor of the house ( all west facing) also had layers of paint and wallpaper removed. Leaking   aluminum windows were replaced with replica wooden casements windows. The ceilings were falling down and were replaced.

The upper bathroom floor was rotten in places and needed repair. All of the plumbing had to be replaced, as did the wiring in three upper rooms and hallway.

The basement walls were repaired and repainted.

The basement used to flood with even the lightest rainfall, and it was originally thought that the weeping tiles around the perimeter of the house would have to be excavated and replaced, then the house would have to be totally re-landscaped. Fortunately, this was not the case. By re-grading the soil around the house and landscaping the perimeter of the house with cement paving stones, which form much needed patio space, we were able to eliminate the need to replace weeping tiles. We were also successful in eliminating the flooding that had been occurring in the basement.

~ The Restoration of the Grounds

	Before	After

The west side of the house had been a gravel parking lot. We graded the space and installed a patio and a driveway of cement paving stones. This grading along with the solid surface patio eliminated the problem of water streaming into the basement with every rainfall. This also eliminated the need to dig up and replace the old weeping tiles.

We installed two small lawns to soften the landscape and replaced the hedge of globe cedars. We restored beds of flowers. We installed safety lighting around the house and patio. A safety handrail was installed on the steps leading to the patio. Bird screens were repaired and in some instances replaced in the house and period washrooms.

	Before	After
	Before	After

On the east side of the house, we removed hazardous slate steps and replaced them with gently sloped cement paving stones. This also ensured that the house was accessible to the handicapped. Here again, we re-graded the ground to slope away from the house rather than towards it, and installed a solid surface patio of paving stones. This eliminated the problem of water flooding the basement on the east side. We replaced the copper downspouts and carried them under the patio and underground to the lower lawn. This meant that we did not have to dig up any of the weeping bed around the house.

	Before	After

We also restored access to the lower front lawn by cutting steps into the slope and replaced the arbour on the front lawn.

~ The Restoration of the Ice House.

The icehouse was derelict. We removed old machinery and junk from the building. We replaced the roof that had fallen in and had small trees sprouting from the remnants. This necessitated some new roof trusses as well. The original floor had long since been removed, so we installed a pine floor and stained it for protection. The rotten walls were removed and  replaced by matching tongue and groove pine paneling.

The door was repaired and a safety window installed. A new line of electricity was run to the icehouse and lights installed.

The new roofing boards were stained under the eaves to match the old and the interior of the icehouse was painted. What was once a derelict building, totally unusable, is now a wonderful small building, which can be utilized by the University or other smaller groups.

	Before	After