Home reno hits the right notes for musician Royal Wood

There was “a fresh tree that we felled outside.” The adults laughed and talked around the dining table, oblivious to the “chaos of children running around.” And later, the little ones may use their good mood on the hills for a little toboggan ride.

Local musical talent Royal Wood sits in the Grand Room – named after the grand piano that has always been there – and reminisces on past Christmases on the family farm.

He feels “very blessed and very fortunate” to have had an idyllic childhood on the 100-acre property just north of Peterborough, Ontario. Now he creates memories for his own two children in the same house he grew up in.

“It’s a very special moment,” says Wood of raising Henry, 2½, and George, 10 months, with his wife Alison Waldbauer in the large Tudor-style house.

The multi-Juno Awards nominee, pop-rock singer/songwriter bought the property from his parents in 2007. But it wasn’t until 2019 that he and Waldbauer moved there from Toronto. Their first child was on the way and his career had reached a stage where he could accommodate a rural lifestyle.

THEN The sunken great room was dark green before Wood began the long process of repainting the interior of the house.

“For me it was always about the country. All my happiest memories are out in the fields,” he recalls of winter fun, sword fights and pond fishing.

The sprawling, 7,000-square-foot, three-story farmhouse that Wood shared with his four siblings was built in 1978, the year he was born. Growing up, he was “surrounded by musical instruments everywhere,” recalls the recording artist, who started playing the piano at the age of four. Wood, who directed his own show at Massey Hall in 2018, recently released a new album entitled What Tomorrow Brings.

When he and Waldbauer moved in, the house “was never renovated, never touched,” he says. “In its day it was very grand and beautiful.”

NOW The couple kept the old wood-burning stove in the kitchen but refreshed everything else in the same black-and-white theme used throughout the home.

The couple gave the dormant land to young organic farmers in exchange for meat and vegetables and embarked on a major renovation to bring the homestead back to life.

They didn’t tear down a single wall, but gutted rooms, renewed the mechanics, the roof, the windows and the floor and removed some interior doors on the ground floor. One of the five bedrooms has been converted into a music studio. They kept the kitchen’s wood-burning stove but undertook a complete renovation of the bright, spacious room.

When work was in progress, the master bedroom became her sanctuary with a fireplace and en-suite bathroom with a 12-foot ceiling.

THEN Like the rest of the house, the kitchen had never been modernized when Wood and Waldbauer began the renovation in 2019.

“We moved our entire Toronto condo to this room,” says Waldbauer, surveying the 900-square-foot space whose pink wallpaper is dated was replaced with soft white color.

While skilled workers were hired for the major upgrades, such as electrical and plumbing, Wood took on other chores, including installing new light fixtures, a tin ceiling in the study, and “a lot of painting” to cover up dark or unusual colors like “grandmother’s green.”

He also painted over the old paneling along the staircase that once served as an indoor playground.

Built in 1978, the five bedroom Tudor style home was the happy childhood home of singer/songwriter Royal Wood and his four siblings.

“We slid down the carpeted stairs on garbage bags,” he laughs. “I don’t know why we didn’t kill each other.”

While his DIY skills date back to his days as a “creative, handy kid,” he credits Waldbauer with redesigning the interior design.

“My wife is 100 percent the vision,” says Wood, referring to the contemporary black-and-white decor with neutral accents and natural materials.

NOW, the renovated foyer shines with new hardwood and a pale color palette.

He points to the once-white fireplace of the sunken Great Hall, which she suggested painting black: “It’s amazing how beautiful it is now.”

Waldbauer, a nurse, says it’s about teamwork: “I just point[to things]with ideas, and he executes them.”

Adding further praise, Wood calls her a “saint” for living through the Reno with two young children. However, Waldbauer advises against it.

THEN The carpeted staircase served as an indoor sledding hill when Wood and his siblings were kids.

“Every day is total chaos,” she says, recalling how the dust-covered floors had to be mopped constantly for a crawling baby.

But now that the dust has settled, Wood’s childhood home feels like his own again.

CV

Carola Vyhnak is a Cobourg-based author covering personal finance, home and real estate stories. She is an employee of the Star. Reach them via email: [email protected]

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