Tires on Bridge Street

Here's a photo from the 1920's of Bennett Chevrolet at its original location at the corner of High and Bridge streets. Evidently they sold Goodyear tires and tubes. Bennett Chevrolet is still in Carleton Place, a big dealership out near the "strip". The Bennetts bought the dealership from the McGregors. I'm pretty sure the painted sign on the stone wall says "Mcgregors Garage".



This is the building at the corner of High and Bridge now.



It is joined to this building, although the two were originally two separate hotels.



It was originally built in the 1830's as a two story centre gable design. It was opened in 1846 as the Carleton House Hotel. I believe the third story and metal cornice were added c. 1904 when it became the Leland Hotel. Municipal and council meetings were held here in the 1840's and 1850's, and since the mid 1950's it has contained various businesses. It's empty now, of course, like much of our main street. Just imagine all the stories in the walls: so many years of tourists, boarders, politicians!....

Progress

Work is progressing nicely on our upstairs hall now. Walls are painted. Ceiling is washed. Baseboards are being constructed, and door trim is being beefed up with (shh...) MDF trim. Work is also progressing on the little stucco house that used to look like ours:


Remember this building?

Notice anything different...new looking...? Town council decided to paint over the old advertising sign on the wall, as some sort of tourist attractor. I don't like it. I suppose it will fade...

Here is a photo of the main street (Bridge Street) looking south, probably from c. 1920.


Here is the same view, taken yesterday. Pretty intact, I'd say. Note the nice faded painted wall on the side of the building. Council plans to repaint that too!



This is the largest commercial building in C.P. It was built as "Taylor's Department Store and Garage" in 1888.

Get A Handle on It!

This is our upstairs bathroom. Too bad I can't find those "before" photos, because it was icky. Brown walls, brown " brick" linoleum, brown cupboards... anyway...this is it now.



Not exciting, but clean, bright and happy. Basically, we gave everything a fresh coat of paint. There is a new window, new pine floors, and a new toilet, sink and tub (with tile surround instead of flexible plastic!).


The little chair above came from the Sunday School room in the United Church in town:



We built a new plank door for the closet, which I really like:


We found the hinges we wanted, but the handle is here:

This house in our neighbourhood has sat empty since we moved here (so at least eleven years now). It is such a cute little house on a double lot, and with a neat little barn in the back. It makes me both sad and frustrated that the owners are just letting it deteriorate when it could be such a great little home. Around the corner to the left in the photo is a side entrance with the perfect handle for my closet door...


I want it, I want it, I want it.

As I deal with the fact that our back porch is facing another winter in it's unfinished state, i take heart in other people's tardiness/indecision/laziness...(With apologies to the owners, who I don't know!) If you are insulted, please come see all my unfinished stuff!!

Check out this house. It was white with blue trim. Then it was blue with white trim. One weekend it turned grey, and the trim started to change to dark blue. then, about a year ago, things just stopped. the great little window's walk has never been touched.


I guess they are still deciding....

And, about a kilometer down the same street:

These people made their decision at least 8 years ago. They transformed the front of their house with dark paint and lots of detail on their veranda. It's gorgeous. but that's all they ever did. The front.

Changes...

This is one of the train bridges in town, crossing the Mississippi River. Until this summer we had freight trains going by a few times a day. Sometimes it was fun, counting cars when the kids were little, or when the army base in Petawawa would receive a shipment of new tanks and jeeps and gun carriers, and we could watch car after car of green army vehicles go by...

Now the track is no longer used, and while it is so lovely and quiet, it is a sad thing to witness another tradition die....

Here is the same bridge, from a different angle, with a passenger train zooming by on it's way to Almonte....


This used to be The Queen's Hotel. It closed about two years ago, and in this photo was in the process of getting some "fresh" new siding on the first story. Great. It has since reopened as The Ale House...

Here it is in it's glory days as The Queen's Hotel. Sorry about the different angle of the photo. Things like that make me crazy!!


Continuing with my "before and after" obsession, I have been trying to take photos of friends' and neighbours' houses where the owners are lucky enough to have old photos of their house. This house is just around the corner from us and has had four owners in the ten years we have lived here. The latest owner is doing a fabulous job of renovating the inside. The grandson of the builder brought him these pictures from the 1920's...


A close-up...

How sad is this? Our neighbour would love to replicate the original porch, but might need to win the lottery to do so!


And a close-up of the detail on the porch...

Change is not always for the better.

Kitchen

Here are a few photos of our kitchen shortly after moving in: (The "before" shots of our bathroom have vanished into the bowels of the computer, never to be found again - oh how I miss the days of film!)


The lady homeowner before us loved her pinks and florals. I didn't. Borders with wheelbarrows and watering cans everywhere...floral linoleum to match the floral wallpaper.... ugly fishbowl light fixtures, and phone jacks in inappropriate places....

Here are a few photos of our kitchen now:


No, we haven't done ANY major work. Yes, the floral lino is still there, and in fact, is held down with white duct tape near the sink. Yes, we really need a new countertop! Yes, I still need a closet door... It is a perfect workspace for one person cooking dinner, but an impossible space for five people and a dog to be in at one time... No, I can't fit in a dishwasher (believe me, I have measured and measured and measured!)...

But I like my kitchen now. I like the colours. I like the light fixtures (from an old train station), I like my leather drawer pulls, and I like all my stuff. Check out the spice cupboard my brother helped me build:

It is hiding a heating pipe that goes up to our bedroom from the basement. We stared at this ugly silver pipe for years, and then designed a cupboard that fits around it.

Here is the spice bit:

Neat eh? I love it. The bottom cupboard was made to hold two twelve-packs of beer too. I think of everything!!

Houses

I am busy searching for my misplaced "before" photos of the bathroom. While I search, here are some photos of my favourite houses in town:


The house above backs onto a Christmas tree farm, and has always caught my eye with its neat second story porch.



I used to walk by this pretty red brick house on my way to work each day. The gardens are spectacular, with a groovy sculpture garden in the back. This is a very common style in town - I could do a whole post one day showing all the houses built in the style in my neighbourhood...


This is a neat frame house on the north side of town. I like the enclosed sun porch on the top!


Isn't this pretty? A classic Lanark County stone house. It used to face the river, until newer homes were built across the street...


A great old shed around the corner. I love sheds and wish I had one...well, I do, but it dates from approx. 1980 and is of the classic "barn roof" variety. I hate it.