Hard work pays off for heritage devotee
Saanich Coun. Vicki Saunders stands in the partially finished basement of her Stan Wright Place heritage home.
Heritage Week highlights importance of remembering history
Despite the problems – original hardware tossed away, the price tag that tripled, graffiti on the walls and appliances – Vicki Sanders says the renovations to her 1937 family home are worth it.
Though she’s been at it for 16 months and still isn’t finished, Sanders believes the finished product will be worth the pain, when she can say she’s restored the home to its original state.
“If we didn’t have our history to learn from, where would we be,” said Sanders, a Saanich councillor and advocate for preserving historical homes.
“But we can’t save them all.”
Feb. 18-24 is Heritage Week across the province. The intent is to raise awareness of buildings and artifacts from B.C.’s past. To mark the week, Saanich is releasing walking maps that point out houses of note in the Gorge neighbourhood.
When Sanders’ parents bought their house at 3956 Stan Wright Lane, it was a holly farm. Soon after, they got rid of the holly and landscaped the yard. Through the ‘60s and ‘70s, her mother updated the interior, installing vinyl windows and linoleum floors.
When she got married, Sanders and her husband bought the old home.
“There’s a lot of sentiment there,” she said. “This was my parents’ house.”
Since Sanders began the home renos in late 2006, she’s discovered unscathed fir floors under the carpeting and a ‘30s-era medicine cabinet from the bathroom.
“We’ve been very true to getting it looking exactly as it did,” she said.
She’s had the five-and-a-half-foot-high basement lifted to an inhabitable height, repainted the exterior, replaced the windows, exposed the fir floors and revamped an old light fixture she remembers from her childhood.
Though the renos are coming along, Sanders declined to wager a guess on when the work might wrap up.
Sanders’ house is on Saanich’s Heritage Register. It’s a document originally compiled in 1991 to include 280 heritage buildings. At that time, property owners had no say over whether or not their building was put on the registery.
It was updated for the first time in 2006 to add another 56 houses and other structures.
Sanders hopes more heritage houses will be preserved and restored as time goes on.
“People have to realize if they want to do heritage, they have to be prepared,” she said, citing unexpected costs and other setbacks. Still, for Sanders, the end will justify the means.
“I’ll look back on it and say it’s been worth it.”
ecardone@saanichnews.com
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