Celebrating Built Heritage (and other flights of fancy) in Saint John, New Brunswick
Our attic, as featured in another blog, was the only unfinished attic of the five homes with the same floor plan on Alexandra St. It had been plumbed though and a rough bathroom was in place. This meant that we were able to finish the attic bathroom as we saw fit without worrying about the…
Our home has nice art glass – stained and leaded beveled glass – and I want to share what we have in the house and what we added when restoring our home. At the end of this blog are pics from some spectacular sample in Saint Awesome. I cannot strongly encourage you enough to snoop…
I wanted to draft this blog for three reasons. First, I first learned about hoosiers from my Uncle Tim. He restored one that had been painted and neglected on my dad’s family farm. My uncle’s work was incredible – a pretty amazing feat and the finished product is a restored beauty which I have found…
When we lived in The Netherlands we made friends with a couple from Texas. They had a small and functional apartment where they made use of all their space. They shared with us that in Texas they had a huge home where they did not regularly use many of the rooms and they thought it…
We needed storm doors on 3 exterior doors to our home. The doors to the side of the house and the kitchen had ugly 1960s storm doors and one blew off during a severe storm [edit – to be clear it was one of the ugly 1960s doors]. The basement had a single door with…
Landscaping is important, it makes our homes inviting spaces that are part of a neighbourhood. When I take a walk, of course I care about beautiful architecture, but what brings me back to a place is the vibe of the area. The plant life around a building is a necessary aesthetic. Good landscaping helps with…
I remember looking at a heritage home with my now husband in 2003 that we considered buying. I would have absolutely gutted the kitchen and the bathroom. Why? I was under the mistaken belief that renovating these two rooms were requirements when you bought a home. As I age and learn, I realize that there…
I have noticed that when we discuss architectural heritage issues in Saint John, like replacing heritage doors, people immediately assume that being historically sympathetic and or using historical materials is astronomically expensive and certainly they assume it is more expensive than buying a new mass produced item like a door. This assumption is rarely challenged…
The former owner kindly gave us this beloved recipe box he found when he bought 5 Alexandra in 2014. This was in the Munro family and clearly used by sisters Nancy Munro Walls and Mary Munro Colter and perhaps their mother Maude. I am in love with the art deco recipe box. I use it…
Where to begin? We have only completed the front façade of our home so far – it’s a lot of work. This blog shows how we went from a simple front (which was perfectly nice) to the restoration of the original 1910 look. It’s been a process! We have been blessed by the wisdom of…