A Toronto Couple Turn an Abandoned Schoolhouse Into an Elegant Country Getaway

To start the next chapter in their lives, Ben Sykes and Erin Connor went back to school. The couple wanted a place in the country, and they had their eyes on rolling, rural Grey County, two hours northwest of their home in Toronto. While searching for property there, they came upon an unexpected building for sale: a one-room schoolhouse with thick stone walls that was built nearly a century and a half ago.

"I have to admit, we hadn’t looked at any schools before," Ben, a partner at a commercial real estate firm, says with a laugh, "but we were willing to renovate, and we wanted something where we could mix old and new." The structure, which had served kids from two townships, was last used in the 1960s, but the basement was still filled with desks and there was "a blackboard and a picture of the school principal on the wall," says Erin, a marketing director.