Port Perry Renovations for Queen Street Brick, Bungalows and Lake Lots

Mary, John, Casimir, Bigelow and Cochrane streets are lined with houses from the 1860s to the early 1900s, many of them on the Township's heritage register. Inside, they tend to share the same bones: tall ceilings, deep baseboards and casings, and plaster walls that have settled into gentle curves. A whole-house update usually works with that scale rather than against it, so where plaster has failed we hang drywall shimmed to the old wall planes, have casings and baseboards milled to match missing runs, and level floors only where a sag points to a problem underneath. A licensed electrician and plumber bring the services up to date before new board goes up, and an engineer reviews any opening cut into a bearing wall.

A bungalow from the 1960s or 70s often sits over a full-height basement with one open room, a furnace near the middle and small windows, which makes it a natural place for a second unit. Scugog's Additional Dwelling Unit By-law No. 12-25, passed in March 2025, allows up to two extra units inside a house in Port Perry and the hamlets, or one inside and one in a detached accessory building, though none on land the conservation authority treats as hazardous. A basement apartment still needs a building permit and drawings showing fire separation and a proper exit, which a designer prepares. Working from that set, our crew handles the framing, insulation, drywall and finishes, a build-out of four to eight weeks.

In a ranch bungalow the kitchen often runs along one wall beside a separate dining room, and in a split-level it sits on the middle level with the bedroom stairs right behind it. Opening either one usually means removing or shortening a wall that can carry ceiling joists, so an engineer specifies a beam before it comes out. Country homes on a well often have a softener or filter near the kitchen or utility room, and Scugog lists installing a water softener among the jobs needing a permit, so the plumber plans any relocation alongside the new sink lines. We install the cabinets, counters, backsplash tile, flooring and paint, and a licensed electrician adds the circuits.

In the ranch bungalows and split-levels around the core, the original four-piece often survives, its wall tile set in a thick bed of mortar over wire lath. That kind of tile comes off in heavy slabs and tends to leave studs out of line, so we strip to the framing, straighten it with sister studs and rebuild with cement board and a waterproof membrane before new tile goes up. A tub that has sat on the same subfloor for fifty years is lifted and the floor checked for soft spots around the drain. Supply, drain and vent work goes to a licensed plumber under the Township permit; we handle the subfloor, framing for a niche or bench, tile, vanity and paint.

Scugog's permit list includes building a deck and gives no size cut-off for it, so we plan on a permit until the Building Department says otherwise. On a lakeside property inside Kawartha Conservation's regulated area, a deck also counts as development, though unenclosed decks are among the lower-risk projects the authority handles through a streamlined permit. Before the layout is fixed, we confirm where footings can go, keeping clear of the septic bed on rural lots and of any setback the authority sets from the water. Where the deck faces the water, owners often pick glass panels or slim aluminum pickets so the railing does not block Lake Scugog, over composite boards that only need washing. A licensed electrician runs the wiring for any deck lights.

Shops, cafes and offices downtown occupy brick blocks well over a century old, so a new tenant's fit-out often begins with uneven floors, shared masonry walls and ceilings that earlier tenants dropped. The Township lists interior alterations to non-residential units among the projects requiring a building permit, and new signs on a facade need one as well; inside the district, signage also follows its own heritage sign permit process. Owners restoring a front can ask about the Township's Heritage Conservation District grant program. We build partitions, drywall, ceilings, flooring and paint, sequenced around opening hours, while licensed trades move lighting, plumbing and any sprinkler heads.

Around Caesarea and along other stretches of the Lake Scugog shoreline, a number of homes started out as cottages, and their three-season rooms and screened porches are often the last parts still closed off in winter. The Township treats making them usable all year as a permit job: converting a seasonal room for year-round use and enclosing a porch are both on its list. The room generally has to meet the same energy rules as the rest of the house, which usually means opening the floor, walls and ceiling, fitting batts or rigid board and sealing the vapour barrier on the warm side, while a window supplier replaces thin single glazing. A heating contractor or electrician adds the heat; we frame, insulate, drywall and trim the room.