THIS OLD HOUSE

We broadcast the show on Monday morning from the latest Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Lottery Home in Oakville. Designed by Brian Gluckstein, the house is, as usual, absolutely stunning, from the sunken dining room to the sink in the powder room to the powder in the sinking room. It’s all done up in Gluckstein’s signature muted colours, and it could all be yours for $100 a ticket (or 3 for $250, or 5 for $375.)

As always when we do these shows, I return home, survey my own place, and find it wanting. “What a dump,” I say, in my best Bette Davis voice, waving an imaginary cigarette. It isn’t, of course. It’s actually a very nice house, and I love it, but it’s old and creaky. It was built in 1911, and still boasts some of the original floors, doors and windows. There are 4 fireplaces: one is sealed up, and the remaining three are wood burning. There are 6 bedrooms, but not one is large enough for a king sized bed. I use the smallest room on the third floor as a dressing room, but it’s not insulated, so getting dressed in the wee hours of a winter morning can be a tortuously chilly experience. Is the house drafty? Yes. Dark? A bit. Are there ghosts? Most certainly.

Here’s what I know: according to the 1911 census, the first occupants of the house were the Reverend Gilbert Agar, the minister at Howard Park Methodist Church, his wife Ida, and their 4 children, one of whom was born in the house. They had a servant girl, who probably slept in my dressing room, poor thing. I don’t know what happened to the Agars, but according to the 1921 census, the house was later owned by Appleton Jones Pattison, a stockbroker, and his wife Irene. They had 6 children, and another frozen servant girl as well. That’s the last census available. To fill in the almost century long gap, I’d have to go rummaging through the City of Toronto Archives, which I may do one of these days. In the mean time, I like to wander and wonder about how these long dead people lived in this, their one time family home. The kitchen would have been a cramped, smoky room at the back the house. They would have shared one bathroom on the second floor. The basement would have had an earth floor, and been dark and full of terrors. They may have kept chickens in the backyard.

Naturally, there have been additions and renovations. The kitchen and bathrooms are fully 21^st century, and Aidan now lives in the basement, which now also boasts a media room, which could only boggle the minds of the Agars and the Pattisons. Remember, back then they didn’t even have radio. Everyone just sat around and watched the chickens.

All to say that although it creaks and groans, and the wind whistles through the cracks, and the dining room is not sunken but rather sinking, I love this old house, and those that haunt it. I will buy a ticket or three for the Princess Margaret Lottery Home, but this is where my heart is.

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