Home for the Holidays

Orangeville Deputy Mayor Todd Taylor is nothing if not available to his constituents – even when he’s at home. Often as he sits at his second-floor home office desk overlooking Zina Street, neighbours, friends and residents shout up cheery hellos to the figure in the window, and he is quick to respond. 

“My wife, Laurie, and I need to budget extra time for evening walks because I love to stop and chat, and cutting the lawn is a series of welcome interruptions,” Todd says. “I value this openness – I always want to be available for anyone to share an idea, concern or question.”

Living in a home on Zina, close to downtown, was always a dream for Todd and Laurie, so when a real estate agent texted them that a house had come on the market in 2020, they leapt at the chance, moving from their west-end home. The couple first moved to Orangeville in 2002 from London, Ontario.

“It was Zina or nothing – we were happy to stay put in the west end of Orangeville,” Laurie says. “When we first saw the house, it was choppy and didn’t have a lot of old character left, so we knew we were buying it to make it our own.”

What a project that turned out to be. A major flood in the basement accelerated their renovation timetable. Orangeville contractor AC Custom Reno met significant challenges: the roof was sinking, making the exterior walls bow outwards. And the original hardwood floors could not be saved. Skylights were removed, and central heating and air replaced baseboards.

“At one point during the process, I was standing on a small part of the main floor looking down through floor joists to the basement and up through beams to the open sky – no roof, no floors, walls that needed to be shored up,” Laurie recalls. But the couple was committed to saving as much as they could and preserving the historic feel of the house. “It would have been more convenient to take the whole house down and start fresh, but we consider ourselves stewards of this piece of history and a house that was home to so many families before us,” says Todd.

The house is the middle of three built in a row by James McIntyre Hogg in 1873. The once Gothic revival-style home was modified into an interpretation of Arts and Crafts style in the 1920s. Orangeville lawyer William Stutz added the back partition in the 1980s as part of major additions, which included purchasing part of the back neighbour’s land and adding a pool. 

“Changes since the 1980s have been just cosmetic,” Todd says. “We found ourselves with a restoration project requiring multiple consultations with engineers. We’re reasonably handy, but this was beyond our capabilities.” With their budget looking to triple with the necessary work, the couple had to forgo their plan to replace the exterior stone cladding with brick more in line with the heritage of the property. 

The need for a new roof led to raising the ceilings on the second floor at the front of the house, where the primary bedroom and Todd’s cozy charcoal grey office are. Those high ceilings in turn led to a neat and functional addition to the primary bedroom: a double decker, two-storey closet, which takes advantage of the height of the room. When Laurie needs to access the “second floor” of the closet, she uses a ladder. 

A spare room, a bathroom and a bedroom for 20-year-old son, Casey, away at university, round out the second floor. The Taylors’ 25-year-old daughter, Morgan, lives in the self-contained apartment over the garage – complete with kitchen, bathroom, and living space. 

While the Taylors’ interior design tastes lean toward clean and contemporary, the home has an undeniable sense of place and history. The Taylors lined the main floor entryway with shadowboxes filled with artifacts found inside the walls, from newspapers dating to the 1930s to old medicine bottles and scraps of the previous wallpaper. The Taylors make their own wallpaper statement in a nearby powder room, with a bold red floral paired with black wainscotting. 

An alcove opens to Laurie’s favourite room in the house, an expansive white kitchen with marble-effect quartz countertops, herringbone backsplash and Shaker-style cabinets, designed by Orangeville’s Aya Kitchens. Engineered hardwood floors in a pale wash add to a modern farmhouse feel. Group of Seven prints frame the dining area next to the kitchen island.

“We entertain a lot, and Laurie has a large family,” Todd says. “It’s so great for everyone to be together at the table and in the kitchen, with seamless conversation and connection.” The family loves spending the December holidays at home and often find themselves in front of the fireplace in the back living room, complete with stone surround, and outfitted with a cushy grey sofa and armchairs in earth tones. “Todd was in favour of a gas insert, and I wanted to preserve the wood-burning fireplace,” Laurie says. “I won.” Ten-year-old golden Labrador Carter is always close at hand, enjoying the togetherness.

The couple is out as often as they are home, for council business or Optimist Club of Orangeville events – Todd is a member. Their preferred mode of transport is walking. “We have two cars, but I’m not even sure why,” Todd says. “We walk everywhere.” Laurie travels to her work in local public service and to volunteering on foot, and Todd takes care of most of his remote day job as director of sales for a consumer packaged goods company. The deputy mayor gig is a part-time role, and one he enjoys immensely. “It’s not always easy – people have very real concerns and they want to be heard. But I see myself as a navigator and I try to address their questions or point them in the right direction. More than any negotiation or project I have completed, that’s what I am most proud of.”

Though there is little time for relaxing, Todd and Laurie love taking advantage of what Orangeville has to offer, from dinner at the Bluebird Café to shows at Theatre Orangeville, and a favourite annual tradition is the light displays at Kay Cee Gardens every December. They also enjoy their trees and outdoor space, carefully restored by Whispering Pines Landscaping of Amaranth. The couple prioritized conservation over practicality, limiting the size of their back deck to save a 130-year-old sugar maple. “We feel very keenly that we are just caretakers of this house and land for a short time in history. How many life events and conversations has that tree witnessed?” Todd says. “I think about that a lot, and the significance of history. It’s what makes this house a very special home for our family.”