6115 Guelph Line, Burlington, Ont.
Asking price: $2,349,000
Taxes: $12,407 (2026)
Lot size: 4.04 acres
Agents: Eileen Lasswell, broker and Alisha Woodman, salesperson, Chestnut Park Real Estate
The backstory
If you’re not a farmer and you’re going to buy a property with an old barn from the 1860s, you’ve probably got a plan for what comes next.
But sometimes plans don’t plug into reality. Sometimes the connections you make elsewhere end up providing a clearer picture of the future you want.
For Elaine Huisman, it was actually her brother’s vision that got her interested in the partly renovated barn on Guelph Line in Lowville, a hamlet within the town of Burlington. He was a music producer based out of Los Angeles, and had an idea that the barn would make for a great recording studio.
“He was driving his motorcycle and he saw the barn. It wasn’t for sale, but he’s the kind of guy who’d go up and look inside anyway,” said Bill Huisman, who with his wife had built up a custom manufacturing business (BCH Cable Assemblies) starting in the late nineties. His brother-in-law thought he could break into the music business with his specialty cables.
There is a long deck that wraps around the barn's front and side.
The barn had about a third of the interior space turned into living space by a previous owner. The other two-thirds were still a fairly raw barn interior – even the block and tackle chains were still up in the rafters of the hay loft. The previous owner had used the space as an art studio and wedding venue. For music recording, it would need an update.
“We did have an architect; they designed a house they were going to build for us,” said Mrs. Huisman, and indeed a modernist plan from Toronto architects Altius to build a brand-new home on the property still exists, even if the planning permission has lapsed. Altius completed the first phase, and the barn renovation was finished in 2012. But with a weak economy, the couple took the house-building budget and reinvested it to strengthen their business.
The plan paid off; the business grew and grew, with more and more clients in the medical, security, robotics and nuclear energy sectors needing specialty high-tech cabling. In 2022, they sold the business and retired.
In the meantime, their eyes had wandered away from the barn. It’s a lovely home and a prime entertaining space, but they also had a cottage in Halliburton and a winter home in Florida, and it was all becoming a lot to maintain. “I’m currently cutting nine acres of grass,” Mr. Huisman said, laughing but dead serious about the chores across his various properties.
The barn today
Coming up the long driveway to the barn, it’s not immediately obvious that underneath the blue steel cladding is a barn with bones more than 140 years old. The original structure on the right has a two-car garage under a long deck that wraps around the whole front and side. A huge sliding door can be seen on the second level, where many of the windows of the interior space are located.
On the other side of the driveway is a four-car garage that is also insulated and heated and was Mr. Huisman’s home workshop for his business, as well as the home for that lawn tractor.
This four-car garage is insulated and heated.
“My role was to develop prototypes and design electronic projects; I had a fully functional shop in one bay,” he said. His clients had specific standards, with no tolerance for failure. “For medical, they are very complex with a lot of regulations and a lot of approvals,” he said, and the couple’s company made cables for MRIs, mass spectrometers, even churning out cables for new ventilators during the pandemic.
The next owner, he suspects, may like the climate-controlled space if they are a car collector or just somebody with “four Lamborghinis.”
The main entrance foyer leads to the rest of the home; a rustic wood- and tile-filled space with connections to storage, utilities, laundry, as well as an exercise room that opens onto the greenhouse they built along the stone foundation.
Up a set of stairs and you’re in the original renovation: a kitchen and living room with broad-plank floors and a fireplace in the corner. The kitchen has a wall of dark pantry cabinets and a large central island topped in white stone. White lower cabinets sit next to a long, tall bank of built-in bookshelves. On the outside walls, a bank of floor-to-ceiling windows connects at the corner to pull more light into the space.
The kitchen features a wall of dark pantry cabinets and a large central island topped with white stone.
Behind the kitchen is the primary bedroom; on the way in is a powder room with an antique dresser repurposed as a vanity for the sink. Off the bedroom is an ensuite shower with more wood accents and a second vanity.
Both bedroom and ensuite have exits to the covered sun porch with a hot tub. Doors open to a wraparound deck and windows facing the rear acreage.
The third level has two bedrooms with high peaked ceilings, separated by a shared bathroom. Another antique-turned vanity adds to the vintage barn feel.
The great room
The largest space is the great room, the potential music studio that still has a raised stage in the corner and full light rigging in the rafters.
The room is 50 feet wide and 30 feet deep, with a ceiling 30 feet high. The rest of the house is relatively modest in size, but, with this room, the home has more than 5,000 square feet of living space.
It is both still entirely a barn – with old shingles and timber exposed – but also an entertainment room with pine-cladding elsewhere to hide the insulation.
The great room can be used as party room as it has a wet bar, a dance floor and large windows.
Accessed through the kitchen or via sliding doors to the deck, is a party room with a wet bar, a dance floor and lots of windows to light up the ancient timbers. It was all pretty handy when you wanted to invite the whole business team, and a good part of the townsfolk, over for holidays to show your appreciation.
“When it became Christmas and Thanksgiving, we’d end up at the barn,” said Mr. Huisman. “We staged a murder mystery one night,” said Mrs. Huisman, and her brother brought several musicians through to play.
The neighbours loved karaoke nights when they had their 2,000-watt speakers set up.
“You need earplugs for that,” she said.