The House, Before

I bought the house from an older man named Nick, who’d been born there. He and his wife had emigrated to Canada and remained there for years; they’d returned to their home town to retire, but in smaller digs.

In the meantime, Nick had rented much of the first floor to a hair salon that subsequently moved up the street. The remainder of the house he’d converted into two discrete apartments. He was in the process of renovating them when he decided he was too old for all that and wanted to sell. By the time I bought it, the house had lain empty for awhile and was pretty derelict. The renovation work consisted largely in reunifying the place from two apartments and a salon into one home. Separate entrances, staircases, and small bathrooms needed to go. Walls came down and floors came up. Wiring had to be relaid. It was a big job.

These photos give an idea of how the house looked.

Apartment entrance

The entrance to the salon

The hair salon (part of which is now the kitchen)

The foyer. At this point, I’m not even clear about which apartment that was to belong to. The third building door is shown here, and there were stairs on either side of this space.

Upstairs in one of the apartments. That’s one of two side tables Nick left. I kept them.

That’s the upstairs landing to one apartment. Note pigeon droppings.

View into second apartment. Check out the wallpaper! The second set of stairs is to the right.

The upstairs starting to come down