Village Tile Company opened June 1, 2019 in Downtown Stouffville. This is a family run company that offers an excellent selection of porcelain, ceramic, stone, glass and mosaic tiles, sourced from around the world, including Italy, India, Turkey and Spain.
Rob Farisco is at the lead in this family business. He’s been working with tile for 34 years and recently completed constructing his 40th custom built house. Rob is originally from Agincourt. He was entrepreneurial at a young age, opening his first tile shop at Kennedy & Steeles when he was a mere 20 years old; he sold it by the time he was 23. “I guess we are doing it again,” said Rob, referring to Village Tile
In the early days, Rob met Tina from Markham at the Markville Mall when he was 15 years old. Married to his “better half” – Rob + Tina = Rotina Renovations. He’s built custom homes all over Stouffville, Ballantrae and Markham. Rob and Tina moved into Ballantrae where they raised Mario and Sandra, who took the bus to St. Marks. Later, they built themselves a custom home in Stouffville so that the kids could take bus into St. Brother André Catholic High School.
At one point, Rob bought green garage building at Market and Sommerville in Downtown Stouffville. “I was rebuilding a car in there, but I got bored – it only took 7 minutes to knock the building down,” said Rob. In its place, he built a “faux heritage” building where Stouffville Yoga resides. It is a gorgeous building, especially in the voluminous interior.
After the 40th house was built, “My son said he wanted me to slow down,” said Rob. So, he purchased 6306 Main Street. The building had been vacant for a number of years with construction paper covered windows and an absentee landlord. It had been rented intermittently for political campaign offices, and formerly used as Curves fitness gym for women. 6306 Main was a brick heritage building, but the ground floor had been decimated and covered in metal cladding, including a “fast-food trash can” aggregate marquee.
Rob ripped off the metal and replaced it with bold, grey brick columns. He replaced the commercial plate glass windows with a roll up silver metal framed glass door, thinking that the space could be a French bistro or something down the road when Stouffvillians are ready. He then applied stucco to the second floor. The building now looks both modern and vintage at the same time, but it’s not without controversy: the heritage advocates loudly protested it when it was under construction, while others love it. The Town didn’t have much ground to form an opinion, as stucco on brick is considered cosmetic under the Building Code.
Walk into Village Tile and you will meet Rob or another member of the family. You will find amazing deals that appear on a monthly basis. You will be surprised at the selection, because Rob has access to a 3,000,000 square foot tile warehouse in Vaughan. Finally, you will also receive advice from a family of builders, who know how to select, install, and care for tile.
