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La Belle Vie
Wouter and Maria Eshuis create a beautiful life—and new old house—outside London, Ontario.
Text by Sally LaMotte Crane | Photos By Robin Stubbert
Tucked in the verdant rolling hills outside of London, Ontario, the country estate of Wouter and Maria Eshuis has undergone a mighty transformation. At the heart of this 56-acre farm today sits a stone-clad main house, an 1830s guest house with pool, five acres of cultivated lawn and gardens, and three new structures next to an old barn and silo—a horse barn, a workshop, and a garage. The result is Belle Vie, French for "beautiful life." What is most remarkable is that this couple designed, built, or renovated these buildings themselves, on a budget, requiring remarkable vision, perseverance, and personal toil. They also designed and implemented extensive landscaping.
Just over 25 years ago, the young couple from the Netherlands, visiting relatives in this part of southwestern Ontario, was smitten by the property despite its caving-in outbuildings, scattered debris, and knee-high grass. "It was a royal mess, but we could see through it," says Wouter. "We saw the tall trees and the rolling earth, tucked away behind the hill. We liked London and its countryside for its European feel." The farm reminded Maria of Toulouse, the French region in which she once dreamed of settling. Her goal was to build a stone French-style cottage here, she says, "with slate floors without baseboards and furnished in a French neo-Colonial style."
When they bought the property in 1983, the Eshuises moved into a portion of an aluminum-clad 1970s ranch house connected with a rambling midsection to the land's original 1830s structure. Over time, the couple created a plan for their property while raising five children. In 1993, they removed the 1830s cottage, hauling it across the property to a new foundation. Then they demolished the middle section. Their plan was to build a new stone house that would incorporate the ranch house, covering it in stone while they lived within. Unsatisfied by several drawings rendered by an architect, Wouter, an entrepreneur, designed the house himself, later receiving an engineer's stamp of approval. "We truly believed that the more simple the lines, the more practical the house would be for us," says Wouter. "I don't know what was used more, the pencil or the eraser. Through trial and error, we made it the way we wanted it, keeping it simple, not posh."
The result is a cross-gabled, two-story limestone house with a one-story wing incorporating the old house, now housing the children's bedrooms. The organic, natural feel of the stone structure, implying solidity and age, complements its towering trees, garden, and rock wall surroundings. The wide hipped-roof porches encourage outdoor living, leading the family into numerous gardens and eventually out to the barn and the horse pastures. The only sounds to be heard are the whoosh of wind through the 100-year-old spruces, bird songs, or the calls of roosters, dogs, and horses.
Whitewashed walls and antique furnishings are reminiscent of the English Arts and Crafts style made popular by WIlliam Morris in the late 1800s.
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Maria went on a quest for limestone of a certain color, eventually finding success in a distant quarry. The owner said that if the couple handpicked the limestone, they could have it for the cost of transportation. It took three truckloads of 25 tons each, all handpicked, costing $1,200 in total. Wouter laid the 7-inch-thick solid stones around the existing wing himself and then enlisted a family member's help for the new portion of the house. In the window sills and in arches above the upstairs windows, he placed Belgium granite blocks, once thought to be ship's ballast.
They bought random slate for the floors from a bankruptcy auction. Wouter spent three months creating smooth edges with a water saw. Maria sorted each slate by color so that Wouter could lay them with gradual shifts in color. He participated in almost all phases of constructing the 5,300-square-foot home. "I laid the flooring, hung dry wall, and did a good part of the plumbing," he says. He helped with the timber framing but relied on the help of a roofing crew and an electrician. "A lot of this was a labor of love," says Wouter. "I don't know if I could do it all again. I know I would hire more people in the future."
The interior wood is pine, with the exception of a Douglas fir ridge beam shipped from British Columbia to provide strength for the 28-foot length of the living room. The walls are stress-skin panels, efficient for heating the home during Canadian winters. Desiring double-hung, solid-wood windows with true divided light, the homeowners selected Marvin windows and French doors. The foundation is concrete with a full heated basement. A woodstove in the spacious, French-styled living room and two furnaces with forced-air heat provide and redistribute warmth. Wouter insisted on a Rumford fireplace in the dining room. Maria's Aga cooker was the first item placed in the new house. She is a fine cook and trained dietitian. Together, the Eshuises represents Aga across Ontario. Maria leads Aga cooking workshops in her kitchen. Wouter is a trained and licensed Aga installer who also troubleshoots for the venerable British company.
Around 1998, the couple completely renovated the original 1830s cottage, now located by the pool and used as a bed & breakfast. They built a new portico, removed plaster ceilings to expose and reinforce beams, and installed steel rods to reinforce the side walls. Wouter placed maple boards salvaged from a tobacco warehouse over the second-story floors, refinished the first-story floors, and added new plumbing and fixtures, as well as an Aga cooker in the kitchen. "We made a lot of alterations, but the feeling is still very old," says Maria.
Nestled close to the main house, century-old spruce trees lend age to the new stone structure. The homeowners flattened the hilly lawn between the house and barn so that Maria could put in what she calls her "mini-Versailles," a formal French garden. It is comprised of 16 blocks of white flowering plants edged in boxwood, separated by grass paths, with pea gravel running down the center and around the perimeter. She uses greater color in the formal and informal gardens elsewhere on the grounds, except red, and relies on terraces, rock gardens, plush lawn, and rows of trees, like beeches, to add interest.
In 2006, Wouter and a worker built a trio of buildings partially over the footprint of a razed horse barn. In addition to a central horse barn and loft, they built a three-car garage on one side and a workshop building with attached chicken coop on the other. The garage and workshop are the same dimensions. All are boarded in pine and painted with a special Swedish paint noted for its red color. Never one to rest, Wouter plots his next project—tearing down their old rickety barn, rescuing timbers, and putting on his tool belt once again.
Sally LaMotte Crane is a freelance writer and editor who lives along the coast of Maine.
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