This house almost broke them. Almost.
There were more than a few times in the past year that Vincent Fraser-Hill and husband Fraser Hill wanted to throw up their hands and walk away from the 1.5-storey, 1830s house in Valley Mills (near Orangedale) in Cape Breton.
Definitely one of those times was when they ripped out pine boards and were showered with flies and beetles — dead and alive — as well as piles of mouse droppings. The shag carpet was moving.
“Every wall, every floor, everywhere was flies,” says Vincent. “It was like The Exorcist, I swear to God. It was just horrific.”
Add bursting pipes, truly frightening electrical and plumbing systems and non-existent septic. Then throw in months of battles with the bank and some unreliable contractors, and it’s hard to believe it ever came together at all.
“There were times when we were ready to walk away from it. I just couldn’t see myself living in the conditions we were living in much longer. It’s just too uncomfortable,” Vincent says.
“Brave and stupid, it’s a fine line. I think I’ve crossed it several times during the project.”
Charming house, back in the day
Just in front of the house, a narrow road with two bridges spans the River Denys. It’s right here that the Crowdis family built their home in the 1830s. They built boats and enjoyed the view for 15 years before selling the property to the MacQuarrie family, who had nine girls and one boy.
“It was a hopping place back in the day, I can imagine,” says Vincent.
The MacQuarries took it in a new direction: They built a general store that jutted over the water so boats could tie up and shop.
It was sold in 1942 to the MacDonald family who again switched things up. They opened an oyster cannery in the barn (which is still there), and added on other buildings on the property (which are long gone).
An American bought it in the ‘80s and he used it for a summer home.
“I can’t tell you who he was but I know he liked guns because the house was full of guns when he died.”
Deaths in the house
The American owner of the house died on the front steps, Vincent says. “He was hanging the wash and he dropped dead.”
But many decades before, two others died in the house.
“One of the young MacQuarrie girls died of the (Spanish) flu in the house and her mother died in the house two years later.”
While some people might raise an eyebrow and wonder about ghosts, Vincent isn’t one of them.
“I find it fascinating but at one time I would have been sleeping in the car, I wouldn’t be sleeping in the house. I think age did that to me.”
And while the lights used to turn on by themselves, that has less to do with ghosts and more to do with shoddy wiring.
“We’d wake up in the morning and the lights would be on because the electric wiring was so bad. You’d turn the lights off and they’d turn on by themselves. And you’d shut the lights off and the lightbulbs were glowing.”
After the American’s death, the house was occupied temporarily and sat empty for years here and there. An elderly couple bought it, but couldn’t keep up with the repairs so they put it on the market four years ago. That’s when a self-proclaimed naive couple from Sydney snatched it up.
Dream house
Vincent first clapped eyes on the house 40 years ago when he was taking his mother, aunt and cousin to a square dance at the fire hall around the corner.
Vincent grew up in Cape Breton but spent many years in Vancouver. He often visited before moving back home for good 20 years ago.
“We drove down this road and I said ‘Oh my God, this is where I want to be.’ My mom said, ‘Well if you dream on it, wish on it, it might come true.’ And sure as heck, 40 years later we found it on the internet,” says Vincent.
“I saw the pictures and I thought that’s the house that I’ve been dreaming of all my life, basically. It had dropped incredibly in price.”
It was up for sale for years with a price of about $175,000 in the beginning, and they bought it four years ago for $49,000. Vincent was operating a B&B in Sydney at the time and Fraser is a lab tech at the hospital. For the first few years, they travelled up on weekends and did some work when they could.
Vincent sold the B&B and moved to the Valley Mills house last winter to work on it full time while Fraser commuted back and forth for his job.
The first week was a nightmare: The water froze about two hours after the plumber turned it on, and the copper pipes in the basement burst.
“We had no running water or toilet for up until two months ago.”
Because the lights were wonky, they had to shut the power off whenever they went to bed or left the house. That meant no space heaters.
“We had a wood stove … but when the wind blows down the river, the smoke blows down the chimney and there’s a backdraft into the house. So there were three or four mornings where we had to go stand outside and open up all the windows in the middle of winter just to get the smoke out. It was unbelievable.”
House of flies
Vincent and Fraser dreamed of restoring the rustic beauty to its 1830s glory, but that idea died a quick death.
“It had pine ceilings and boards and naively we thought we’d restore it to what it was back in the 1830s.”
But they noticed the pine boards were patched in many places and wondered why. They were going to fix the boards, insulate and put them back up but the boards were so dry, they split and shattered.
“When we took the boards down, the shower of flies fell on top of us.”
They quickly abandoned the idea of putting the boards back up and decided to modernize the house instead. However, they kept a few nods to its 19th-century heritage like the beams in the ceilings
“I said “We’ll make it our authentic house because the previous owners made it their home so we will do what we can do, but I want to honour the builders so let's keep the beams exposed so we have a touch of the heritage,’” says Vincent.
“You can’t get more historic than the guts of the house.”
Emotional scars
Now sitting in his living room in his finished house and looking out over the water, Vincent can’t talk too much about what this project has cost them, emotionally, physically and financially.
“There were so many negative things, I couldn’t begin to tell you. Really, I couldn’t without getting emotional,” he says. “We took people at face value which is not a good thing when you’re dealing with tens of thousands of dollars and shady contractors.”
And due to restrictions on how the bank would release money from the mortgage, it sometimes took months to pay contractors.
They budgeted $169,000 and six months. What they got was $200,000 and 18 months. Their final inspection should happen any day now.
Right now there are far more negative memories in the house than good. Vincent and Fraser say it doesn’t even feel like a home right now.
“What we’re looking forward to honestly, is to make it a home because right now I don’t feel it. We’re still dealing with the negative stuff, the negative emotions and what we’ve been through and we haven’t had time to process it all and sit back and say ‘This is our forever home,’” Vincent says. “I hope we get that feeling. I’m sure we will once we get furniture in … and start building positive memories.”
Layout
Downstairs: wrap-around living room, kitchen and a half bath.
Upstairs: TV room/den, master bedroom, ensuite bathroom and laundry room.
