I lived and worked at The Lippincottage Art Laboratory in Toronto's Kensington Market for a number of years in the noughties with Paul, who is my good friend and was its owner.   While in residence I undertook interior and exterior restoration, renovation an redecoration, everything from restoring the 1860s interior to installing the central vac.   The small house was built with enough timber to build a modern mansion, and with large ornate plaster and woodworking features one would expect to see in a grand hotel - not a small worker's house.  I designed custom double doors from antique panel doors and a puppet-theatre-like walk-in closet.  Cleaning, repairing, replacing whole sections and painting the extreme three dimentional 1860s plasterwork was like working somewhere over the rainbow.

Just so you know I'm not too too precious, I dug the goo from the basement, stuck the stucco, did the drywall, built in the shower, put in plumbing, electrical, insulation, built, rebuilt and repaired more than a few walls, TSP'd and painted the place... twice.  I sanded and polyurethaned the hardwood floors and shoe moulding.  It's always wise to finish with refinishing the floors.  

The Lippincottage was also a base for my many art projects at that time, from constructing the House Guests installation for the Art Gallery of Ontario to movies like Remedy and Bedroom Suite with scenes shot at the Lippincottage.   Paul sold The Lippincottage in 2010 for far more than he had bought it, so I took these pictures to remember how gorgeous the place was at its zenith.   The Globe did a piece on it.  Paul had to sell to have enough to buy The Worm Factory, a former 19th C factory building, horse stable and worm collection depot near Allan Gardens where I've designed and built a glass brick glassware wall, wooden bookshelves and shaker doors made from scratch, but it's another story.