VICTORIA: CELEBRATING THE BUNGALOW
Couple’s bungalow not so ordinary
Barbara Hubbard is a bungalow believer.
She sees potential in these unassuming, one-level homes that used to be dotted all over Victoria, and has loved living in her Uplands version for more than 28 years.
It has everything going for it — especially the fact it is a no-step, ground-level home, ideal for retirement and aging in place.
Hubbard decries the scale on which bungalows are being torn down and replaced, especially in Oak Bay. Her partner, geotechnical engineer Geoff Buck, agrees these homes are “being eliminated at a fairly good clip; it’s unrelenting.”
The word bungalow comes from India and initially referred to a house in the Bengal style, featuring only one storey and a wide veranda. The term later came to be used for the spacious single-level homes and large cottages occupied by officials of the British Raj. They were a convenient choice, as they had no stairs and didn’t need tall trees beside them to ensure shade or privacy, as higher buildings required.
When Hubbard bought the 1955 house, it was little more than a long rectangle: “It was small and ordinary, but we decided to make more of it.”
Over the years, it has become ever more comfortable, with the subtraction of several walls and addition of two new rooms opening on to the lush back garden. Rather than a rectangle, the house is now a shallow U-shape.
Hubbard turned the long central hall into a linear gallery, filled with family photos and historical artworks, and the foyer into an airy and appealing contemporary space.
“When you live in a bungalow, it’s all about the art,” she explained with a chuckle.
The two rooms added to the back of the house give greater access to the large and luscious garden — “I do the inside and Geoff does the outside” — and between the two additions they created a sun-trapping patio.
Almost immediately after moving in, they added the first extension onto the master bedroom, “a box on the back,” which gave them a small sitting area, studio for Buck and a transition into the garden.
Later, a great room was added onto the kitchen, reusing the original windows.
“We were able to use our imagination and extend the whole house out the back.”
By removing several interior walls, the owners expanded sight lines and emphasized the horizontal planes, then added shelves for books and well placed paintings, prints, etchings, pottery — and sculpture.
In one of the two living rooms stands a life-size, carved wooden figurehead taken from the prow of a ship that used to ply the waters of Latin America. She found it lying in a gutter on a Caribbean island many years ago.
“It was pouring with rain and water was rushing over it, but we went into a nearby shop and asked if it was for sale,” she recalled. “We called her Dolly and got her to New York where we had a coffin made to bring her home to the Kootenays where we lived then. But one day a huge spider crawled out, so we lashed Dolly to a tree outside,” where she remained for many years.
Hubbard has had an eye for art and loves collecting when travelling.
“The sad thing about getting old and having a house full of things is I can’t collect anymore.”
She is an impulsive and eclectic shopper, mixing Haitian art with old Quebec pine, hangings from markets in Turkey, sculpture and pieces by Myfanwy Pavelic, Andy Wooldridge, Tony Onley and others.
One of her favourites is an engraving from her hometown of Bielefeld, a 13th- century city in northeastern Germany famous for spinning mills and linen production, where a town bank once issued money made of linen, silk and velvet.
Hubbard has continued the textile tradition through her women’s-wear stores in Sidney.
Besides fashion and art, Hubbard loves opera and has decorated her office with framed posters of Pacific Opera Victoria productions she has sponsored.
“I first saw an opera at age 12 when my grandmother took me to see Nabucco. I was totally transfixed by the music, but remember distinctly wishing they would just stop singing.”
Buck understands the desire people have to tear down old homes, “but this house works very well for us, and so does the garden and patio. It’s nice to have a variety of places where you can sit in different moods and this area is one of the sunniest spots in Victoria.”