The Schoolhouse Story
Back in the summer of 2005 when my 14 year marriage was falling apart, I came home to Canada to visit family and lick my wounds. My mom, sister and I met in the beach town of Southampton, Ontario. I departed from our restorative visit using Bruce Rd 3 south toward Toronto and eventually back to Baltimore, Maryland. Just north of a small village called Paisley, in Bruce County, I spied a dilapidated yellow-brick schoolhouse for sale: ugly, vacant, too close to the busy road and damaged by every owner before me with a bad idea and no money with which to carry that ill-conceived idea out, I had my sister scope it out for me.
Someone had helpfully scrawled the asking price on the sign: $69,900.00. Hey! I thought, I can afford that with money left over to renovate! ........ Three years, too much money and lots of unforeseen hiccups later the house is complete. Two bathrooms, a sleeping loft, master bedroom on the main floor, great room with a wood burning stove, geothermal heating and cooling, steel roof and self-seeding wildflower meadow in place of a lawn, this house embodies the green trend toward small yet stylish homes.
This is now where I live and work. And though the project nearly killed me and all but emptied my bank account, I love the place and am very proud of what my vision produced.
I currently offer one-day workshops, various gal's activities and bed and breakfast services at the schoolhouse.
View my gallery of rugs by appointment only. Call 519 353 7470 or email micheline@mannmadestudios.com.
|
