Wreaking balls are set to demolish a 50-year-old triplex near the Rideau Canal, yet a hefty, honey-coloured newel post will avoid the scrap heap, finding a new home thanks to a custom builder and salvage teams from Habitat for Humanity.
Stained glass windows, 57 doors, four kitchens — including gleaming granite countertops — and a ridiculously heavy iron bathtub were also trucked out of the triplex and five neighbouring Glebe homes last December by Habitat volunteers, who stashed the bits and pieces in a cavernous storage facility in deep Kanata.
Those rescued items were then transferred to Habitat’s two ReStores earlier this month to be sold to dollar-smart renovators. The ReStores are treasure troves, filled with new and gently used building materials gathered from both big-name retailers and private donors. Staff and volunteers daily sort through and display everything from crystal chandeliers to hardwood flooring and working toilets.
The maple newel post is priced at $275, less than half of what it would cost in a retail store, if you could even find something similar. The kitchens, all from Ikea, range from $1,500 to $2,000, including granite counters and double stainless sinks.
A thick, solid oak door with brass knocker is $200, and decorative windows that look like they were once in a church are $175.
A maple newel post and several decorative windows were among the treasures that Myrna Beattie’s Habitat team salvaged from six Glebe homes.
“Business at the ReStores is booming,” Myrna Beattie, director of retail operations for Habitat’s ReStores, said during a tour of the Kanata warehouse. “The two ReStores generate more than $1.2 million a year for Habitat. The traffic has increased by four times. People are looking for bargains; it’s crazy.”
Habitat builds homes for the working poor, relying on volunteers, fundraisers, revenue from the ReStores and contributions from private citizens and corporate Ottawa, including Roberto Campagna of Roca Homes, a custom urban builder with a social conscience and a commitment to Habitat.
Campagna is a board member of Habitat and regularly invites the non-profit’s crews to salvage materials before he takes down an older building. Last year he sent an invite to Habitat to rescue what it could from the line of older homes along Queen Elizabeth Drive.
Roca Homes president Roberto Campagna’s commitment to Habitat for Humanity is so strong that he sits on its board.
Roca is set to demolish the brick triplex on Fourth Avenue and five homes along the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to make way for a pair of four-storey, decidedly modern condos. Nineteen luxurious apartments will pack a view of the Rideau Canal and carry price tags starting at $1.5 million.
Despite the soft local market and a surplus of condos, 13 of the units, collectively called the Queen Elizabeth Custom Residences, have been sold in six months, says Campagna, who has carved out a reputation for nailing down prime urban locations and then working with Ottawa architect Barry Hobin to design custom luxury homes, earning a raft of design honours from the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association along the way.
The homes coming down will be replaced by luxury condos designed by Barry Hobin.
“Three of the original Glebe owners (of the condo site) bought a residence,” says Campagna, adding the whole project started over a cup of coffee with one of the owners in 2012.
“The hardest deal was the purchase of the last Queen Elizabeth home,” says the developer, who bought his first piece of property when he was 18. He has never varied from developing urban sites, although the level of finishing and designs have become more sophisticated. “These stacked custom homes are very high end and very private.”
Queen Elizabeth Custom Residences is a pair of four-storey condo buildings with a total of 19 units set along Queen Elizabeth Driveway.
Hobin designed the Queen Elizabeth buildings with a modern edge, incorporating oversized terraces, massive living rooms, floor-to-ceiling windows, underground parking, natural gas fireplaces and elevators opening directly into units. The fully customizable homes range from 1,500 to 4,000 square feet and there is one penthouse still available.
This isn’t the first time Campagna has invited Habitat volunteers to salvage doors, kitchens and decorative windows from homes that will be torn down.
“It makes good sense,” he says.
And he’s not alone in supporting Habitat’s ReStores.
Private citizens donate materials and Euro Tile & Stone on Hawthorne Road has been a longtime contributor, regularly sending small batches of leftover tiles to the Belfast store, says Beattie. “It doesn’t make sense for Euro Tile to keep the tiles because there is not a large enough supply. It makes sense for a customer doing a renovation because they don’t need a lot of product.”
The modern-styled condos include oversized terraces to take in the canal view.
The Home Depot is another big supporter, with the ReStores’ five-tonne truck regularly pulling up to locations across the city, says Beattie.
“Last year, we made more than 400 trips to Home Depot stores, picking up scratch-and-dent and end-of-line products. Habitat is Home Depot’s charity of choice and we are immensely lucky.”
Soon, a smart shopper will also feel lucky to stumble upon a vintage maple newel post to finish off a staircase reno, adding a bit of Glebe history along the way.
Habitat for Humanity ReStore
East: 768 Belfast Rd.; 613-744-7769
West: 7 Enterprise Ave.; 613-225-8400
Hours: Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
Information: habitatncr.com
Units range from 1,500 to 4,000 square feet and start at $1.5 million. Thirteen of the units have already sold.
Queen Elizabeth Custom Residences
What: 19 luxury stacked condos in a pair of four-storey buildings on Queen Elizabeth Drive between Fifth and Fourth avenues
Builder: Roca Homes
Sizes: 1,500 square feet to 4,000 square feet
Prices: $1.5 million to $3.5 million
Information: rocahomes.ca
