Taylor Lane
On 4 May 2022, I completed the construction drawings for “Stilesville II”, a retirement home for my brother, Edward and my sister-in- law, Marlene. This is the fourth home that I have designed for them and the largest. It is basically a one story square box with a hip roof and three dormers. Two of the dormers are bedrooms for visiting grand children and great grand children. It is going to be built just down the hill from “Stilesville I”.
“Stilesville I” is sort of homage to the Arts and Crafts Movement with all of the bedrooms on the upper level and my brother’s woodworking shop in the basement. In “Stilesville II”, the workshop is adjacent to a two car garage with direct access to the outside for the convenience of delivering wood. I will always associate “Stilesville I” as where their youngest daughter, Erin got married on a beautiful Summer afternoon and the home where the family gathered after my mother’s funeral.
The second home was on a city lot about a ten minute drive to the center pf Moncton, New Brunswick. It is a two story clapboard Federal Style structure. It was the home for three weddings and where I said goodbye when I headed off to the USA in 1990. I suppose Jennifer, Melody, Stephanie, Erin and Patrick consider this their home with the most memories, since they all lived here while attending high school.
“Taylor Lane” was their first home built around 1976 just outside of Hillsborough, New Brunswick. It is small three story cube tucked into the side of a hill that overlooks the Petitcodiac River, The cube consists of three boxes. The east box has the Mudroom/ Laundry, Eat In Kitchen and Bedroom No. 1 on the upper floor. The center box has a Powder Room and a three story stairwell and the south and west box has two bedrooms above the living area. All of the principle rooms have large windows for the views and passive solar heating in the winter. Ed Richard. Marlene’s father aka Gramps had reached the age where he could no longer live by himself so an addition was built around 1985.
The design problem was how to build an addition next to a cube. My solution was too slide a wedge shaped structure up against the existing cube. The main floor had an apartment for gramps and two bedrooms on the upper floor for the daughters. One of the bedrooms has a loft, a perfect space suitable for escaping with a good book. The wedge and cube were linked by a large foyer that was much better than the existing cluttered mudroom. This is the home that I would drive out from Moncton in my Datsun King Cab for Sunday dinners, family gatherings and Christmas.
It was the home that I organized at least two Treasure Hunts for the girls and visiting cousins. The second hunt started on a restored train that ran a few miles out and back from Hillsborough. The children all wore railroad caps and when the train pulled into the station, I held up the first clue written on a sheet of cardboard, .It was the number for the family mailbox in the nearby Post Office. I can still see, seven children running up the hill laughing with excitement. This hunt almost didn’t happen. The girls spent part of that summer at Bible Camp, and I thought, with their acquired knowledge, the perfect way of beginning this hunt was with a Bible Trivia Contest. They had to answer correctly six of ten questions or the hunt was cancelled.
Favorite uncles are permitted to torture children. They stumbled on the possible elimination clue but the THers mother / aunt could not handle the tension and blurted out the correct response too “name one of the five women in the genealogy of Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew.” ***
This was also the home for the most beautiful Golden Retriever, Katie and a rescued dog, Nicky. They would recognize my Datsun King Cab truck as I drove down the driveway, and greet me each with a ball that I had to throw many times as soon as I turned off the engine.
Today the house is unrecognizable. A subsequent owner changed the flat roof to a hip structure. This picture shows the west and north sides of the house. The distant Petitcodiac River is barely visible at the top of the photograph.
*** Ruth
