HOMES FEATURE
The ultimate
DIY project
BUILDERS PUT UP THE SHELL, BUT OWNER’S HARD WORK CREATES A HOME By Nancy Harper Photography • Bryn Gladding ON THIS CONVENTIONAL suburban street full of conventional brick houses — a tidy garage here, a basketball hoop there — there is one house like no other. Outside, it blends in with the crowd. Inside, it’s something different altogether. Byron Shantz is the owner of this house, and he knows a thing or two about design. As co-owner of St. Jacobs Furnishings, he’d have to. But when Byron found the perfect lot in Wellesley and told his builder to provide only the shell — vowing to do the rest himself — it begged the question of why any sane person with two kids and a fulltime job would take such a hard road to building the house of his dreams. Surely what lay ahead were many months of hard work and frustration. Why not pay a builder to do the whole thing and save himself the hassle? Why bunk down at his parents’ place (no matter how perfectly lovely those parents may be) for months on end? Why spend lonely nights on a beanbag in the middle of a construction zone? Most of us with a day job, a mortgage and a few children who need to get to the rink on time would lay down and die at the thought of all the details, not to mention the loss of precious spare time to a DIY mega-project like this. Indeed, the nightly ritual of comfy couch and Dancing With the Stars is certainly the easier option, and
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it’s often the most folks can muster at the end of the day. In hindsight, the process was just torturous enough that Byron can’t fathom ever doing it again. But like anything that’s supposed to be meaningful — reading Shakespeare in high school, say, or writing a book or running a marathon — it only feels good when it’s finished. In other words: no pain, no gain. Byron’s story is steeped in emotion. He is a man whose marriage had ended and who needed a big project — a very, very big project — to help him recover. What his two children — Ashlyn, 10, and Dawson, 7 — would think of the house was always going to be critical. “I wanted it to feel like they’re not leaving home when they come here,” Byron explains. “It’s easy to build a house. It’s harder to build a home. It is about starting over. It’s a new chapter. It’s exciting and it’s good, and I never would have thought it would be this good.” Central to Byron’s take on things is that great craftsmanship is essential. His business connections to local Mennonites meant that the house was never going to be ordinary. The designs are his own. The craftsmanship is the work of the David Martin Old Order Mennonites community. Eden Homes built the shell, and Byron did the rest with a little help from his tradesmen buddies. More designer man-cave than standard bachelor pad, this is a guy’s dream home. The media wall with the 60-inch TV is
pure male energy. Ditto the surroundsound system. What would be a formal dining room in any other house is a studio music room here, scattered (tastefully, of course) with guitars and equipment. And what’s a guy-centric house without a great deck and a pool? Outside, Byron’s goal was “backyard Muskoka,” with the lot and trees making a great backdrop for that. “I have close friends walk in here and go ‘This is so you,’ ” Byron says. “It’s open. It really has no rules. It’s really casual.
FAMILY SPACE Byron Shantz jokes with his children, Ashlyn, 10, and Dawson, 7, as he prepares a meal in the Wellesley home he designed. Eden Homes built the shell of the house and Shantz did the rest with a little help from his friends and some David Martin Old Order Mennonite craftsmen. In the kitchen, stainless steel appliances add a modern touch to the wormy maple cabinetry and the barn-board island. The floors are of Andean pecan.
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MADE FOR COMFORT A large television and a toasty fireplace dominate a relaxed sitting area in Byron Shantz’s home.
I love the open flow of the house. It just really describes me. It should feel like an old pair of jeans.” All of this makes sense for a man who loves to cook but who wants to watch football while he’s doing it. The ultimate guy house it may be, but it’s also a place where good wine and cheese will be consumed among friends and where the Super Bowl will most certainly be watched — just with better décor and better food. • • • Building the inside of a house is a big undertaking even for experienced builders, which Byron is not. But having grown up in
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a family that helped put St. Jacobs on the map, he comes by his design flair and work ethic naturally. Byron watched his father, Ross, and his uncle, Milo, shape the village of St. Jacobs. This gave him the early inspiration he needed. Decades ago, Milo became interested in creating something along the lines of what he had seen in Lancaster, Pa. — an area dominated by Old Order Mennonites — and sought out the local craftspeople who could cement St. Jacobs’ reputation as a prominent centre of Mennonite culture and tourism. Ross was the master at bringing people together and making it happen. “My uncle and father are both visionary people,” Byron says. “When you’re around that daily, it can inspire you.”
Open the door on his Wellesley home and you’ll see the results of that inspiration. “I didn’t know what the house would be because there are so many different ways that it could have gone. I wanted to just blank-space it,” Byron explains. “I walked on this land and I tried to just figure out what it would feel like. I wanted it to be a place where whoever walks in here feels really comfortable, no matter what’s going on in their life. The feeling I wanted to obtain was a remote indigenous vacation in my home.” So how does he know this is it? It’s simple: “I don’t want to leave.” Byron adds that taking the shell of a house and building it up from the inside is something pretty much anyone can do. It helps to be a project person, though, and someone who can stick to a budget.
“I needed a project at that point in my life,” Byron explains. “But anyone can do this. This is a 1,900-square-foot house. It’s not the Taj Mahal, but you can do interesting stuff and not go crazy on the budget. I think it comes back to the feeling or emotion you want to create and knowing what you want to feel at the end of the project.” Every great do-it-yourselfer has a great support team, too. Byron’s included his parents, his store manager and interior designer Carole Fielding, his sister Sheila Shantz and her boyfriend Tim Weiler. “It’s a great creative thing to do — spend time Googling, spend time in magazines, create your image board. Anyone can create. “You start looking at stuff and you end up with something that’s pretty close to what you feel is kind of your truth and who you are. And then it really depends on your skill set, but there’s always people around to fill that void.” So what’s next? Working with iron, and creating new design ideas to sell at the retail level — not as big a project, of course, but enough to keep him busy.
OUT BACK At the back of the home, Byron Shantz aimed for “backyard Muskoka,” complete with pool, patio, trees — and relaxation.
“
You can do interesting stuff and not go crazy on the budget. I think it comes back to the feeling or emotion you want to create and knowing what you want to feel at the end of the project.
” Byron Shantz
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