Rose’s Beach House

About the Space

War-time bungalow known to the neighbourhood as Rose’s House. Generous front yard w/ overgrown stone footpath is marked at the road with a vintage yellow light post to mark the way for travellers. Our treed backyard offers views of the natural, marshy lakefront, a 4-acre meadow, a mature forest, a chicken barn, two large old outbuildings and even the beach, off in the distance. The inside of our modest home has been patiently restored to function as a well-furnished, mostly-original house circa 1945. The original wooden baseboards, window casings and veneer doors are still in use, complete with the original, Art Deco glass door-knobs and even some light switch plates. Neither the living room nor either of the bedrooms has ever been wired w/ overhead lights. Despite a new toilet and pedestal sink, the one tiny bathroom feels completely original, including the embellished medicine cabinet, textured walls, art deco cast iron/ceramic tub w/ original faucet and other hardware like towel bars and toothbrush holder. There is a small exterior window in the shower wall, helpful perhaps for camera access but concealable if the vintage ahower curtain ia drawn. The kitchen’s original plywood/beechwood veneer cupboards are still doing their jobs with original chrome hardware fixtures, even fastened w/ vintage screws. The original mint-green Barker Board runs along the bottom half of each wall. A solid beechwood table surrounded by mismatched vintage chairs is at the centre of the kitchen. Many vintage kitchen apparatuses are still used in our kitchen today; tools like Nanna’s old hand mixer, the bone-handled saw for domestic butchering and the dainty tongs for picking the green tips off our strawberries. The back porch has yet to be repaired, as does the breezeway. Along with the detatched single garage w/ cedar post and beam construction, the back porch, patio and breezeway may suggest the best times at Rose’s house have already come and gone.