by Frank Robinson
Dear Kent: I check your blog every day and I have thought about sharing a story about a small (maybe not tiny) 400 square foot house I reclaimed in 2007 and have been restoring. We bought 7 acres about an hour north east of Edmonton, Alberta in 2007. It had two houses on it. One is log house that is 107 years old and I have pretty much finished restoring it by sanding logs and redoing very old windows. It is too big to fit this story, but it is why I bought the property.
The small house was pretty much a write off as you will see from the photos. I think it was likely a kit house in the late 1920s or early 1930s. It was built in Edmonton, but moved to the present location and put on a concrete basement in 1968. It was last lived in about 2004. In 2007, we sanded the exterior, and repainted in historic colors. Later we added new windows, sanded the interior maple floors, redid the plumbing and upgraded the bathroom. It is a weekend property now and we have fit our family of 6 adults and 4 small dogs with the basement being finished.
I am not sure if this story will fit your blog, but here are some photos any way. Thanks for the great blog. It is the first thing I check every morning after the weather. I will send the photos one at a time as they are large. I will also send you some photos of the log house before and after…. I have also included a photo of the outhouse we built as it was the first building project on the site when we bought it.