I am very fortunate in my work as a Realtor: I get to help people find the property that will become thier new home or new business location & I usually get to see and enjoy the transformations that occur as my friends and clients make these properties their own.
Most recently I attended an open house at Klockwerks Studio.
Roger Wood, the magnificent artist, artisan and owner of Klockwerks is a client & now friend of mine. Fortunate enough to have had my name refered to him some time last year, I took on the task of tracking down a property that would become his new Hamilton studio & home.
Roger's studio on Fraser Avenue in Toronto had become too small and was under constant threat of becoming another condominiumium for the well off and well healed young urbanites of Toronto...the artist's refuge of the Fraser Avenue & Liberty Street warehouses are facing extinction...it has been many moons since I myself shot films out of 7 Fraser Avenue...with the smell of Dempsters bread baking outside and the stale warehouse air inside...many a newspaper or police drama shot in the bullpen set of the old warehouse offices...Artist retreats back then tucked in the back and this way and that throughout the property...not sure if they or the studio itself has survived T.O.'s real estate boom of the past decade...
We began to hunt for a mixed use building; apartment above and storefront below. Of course we looked on James North, a location considered by every artist but nothing big enough or small enough was to be found. One property did come on the market during our hunt, but thanks to a wonderful twist of fate, it was not to be the one - and, I would not understand how wonderful this twist until 317 Queenston Road appeared on our radar. Indeed, I only fully understood the wonder twist when I saw the studio & apartment set up in all it's glory during the open house a couple of weeks ago....Klockwerks needed space & 317 had it.
317 Queenston Road had been on the market for a while. Vacant lonely lower level, rented upper apartment & 2 huge storage containers in the backyard. There is a side drive and boulevard parking in front - which for commercial is an incredible plus. The concrete & block construction was solid, high dry basement, huge 2 bedroom apartment, interior cement stairway from basement to upper level in the back, a hop from the Red Hill Expressway - definately a contender for what Roger was seeking. My own thoughts: how had this escaped everyone else? It did not require too much thought. We went for it and negotiated an excellent price.
Roger has now filled it with his equipment, findings, furnishings and artist's touch. I stepped in during his open house - immeidately awe struck by the whimsical clockmakers shop that the lonely vacant store front had become. Clock faces adorning almost every wallspace, old wooden cabinets full of bits and pieces, large tables of finished and soon to be finished enchanting one of a kind time pieces.
The back interior cement stairs now draped & adorned with antique runners & art. The spacious apartment dressed as an excentric comfortable home. And in the backyard where the containers sat, a lovely garden that knows not of the hard encrusted soil that was there for decades.
Magnificent Transformation. Whimsy. Magic. 
One of the delightful acquisitions that I have been fortunate to have a hand in.
..if you have not seen his wonderful work, I would think if he is not too busy, Roger wouldn't mind you sticking your nose to the window until he lets you in...
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