Living far, far away from Winnipeg is getting so hard to do... currently, I live in Dauphin, Manitoba. I have tried to convince a decorating store, in town, to hire me but the people there really enjoy their jobs. I have inquired as to the availability of a position there, oh, five or six times or more.
I just love making things better, you know?
I purchased my bathroom flooring from that store. I wish I could load more pictures from my old phone camera to my getting old computer but, alas, it doesn't seem to work!
Here is a picture of the windows in the old house I have tried to fix up a little. We don't plan to replace any windows because the age of the house and re- sale market might not create a balanced scale. When I moved here, one window was broken and my dear son fixed that for us so, the glass was replaced in the bedroom I'm in.
So, my desire to move to Winnipeg, again, when the husband is retired, is a careful 'what will be spruced up a bit and what is fine the way it is?'
This outdoor project is still my favourite project I have completed for that wonderful garden setting. The tea room table, featured on the front of my novel, is sitting in the middle of the deck we built and my garden chairs were also used, a lot, to prop up the construction materials we purchased, and purchased, and purchased... mostly at McMunn's... but some at Co-op building supplies too... such helpful places to get supplies.
As you can see, in the background, the 'shed' likely dates back to when the house was built, maybe 1940's... my husband calls it a shed because of the size. It's quite small. Some people might say it's a garage but it can't fit most vehicles.
One day, when my old equipment is cooperating, I will load more photos and show how two $50 screen doors were transformed into wonderfully sturdy doors that were then hung from my 'barn door ironmongery' that I hauled out here, having purchased those in Winnipeg a few years earlier. The construction of those doors was totally the brainchild of myself and my husband.
When living far away from a major city, you must be very creative to complete little projects with what is available. So much of the work is 'in situ.' It is my guess,... I shall try to find out for sure, that this house was likely built by a rough and ready do-it-yourselfer. I sent a photo to my son, of the joists that are visible from the basement. The rough- cut lumber of one joist, in particular, still has the bark of the tree on it. I am wondering if the lumber came from Kippan's Mill in Riding Mountain... now a National Park. The mill did provide building materials for European settlers from approximately 1895- 1945. The area was proclaimed a Forest reserve in 1895 to properly manage the resources. A very enterprising man by name of Alex Kippan, purchased an area that was excluded from the park, and operated a sawmill until all marketable timber had been logged sawn, and used for building, 1936- 1946. Well before I studied this tidbit of history, I suspected that the lumber for the house I currently live in, likely came from that mill. From my small study of this, it is likely white spruce.
Three years ago, 2022, I was up there cross- country skiing, and snow- shoeing, and I saw what is a bit of a remnant of the mill. Now, it is just a ramshackle memory with a 'danger sign' so be careful if you go exploring.
So much of the building of Canada was accomplished by European settlers... of which I, also, am a heritage of.