Furnishing Barton Manor

So you have seen lots of the before and if you like Barton Manor of Fernie on Facebook you have seen the amazing photography skills of Kyle Hamilton with the after pictures.  So I what next to show you all?  I know before and afters of the furniture!  How fun is that?

As a home decor magazine-aholic, my favourite magazines are the flea market ones.  I have always loved older, quirky furniture.  I have often found beauty in what others may not.  (I am going to add to my poor husbands dismay. He has always been a get it new guy.) I tend towards more sentimental attachment to furniture and artifacts.   I also tend towards seeing the possibilities in different things.  I remember one time years ago I brought home a large old cabinet TV.  I ripped the guts out and then stalled.  I wanted to build a pet bed but got overwhelmed and my poor hubby was frustrated and hated it.  I ended up getting rid of it, but now I see them all over and knowing Jim's skills wish I would have put him to work on it for me!

With this house I hit the jackpot!  I was able to indulge my love of finding cool things and decorating paired with Jim's skills in painting and in small carpentry.  Since he needed the house furnished and he needed it to look good, he was more than willing to help me and deal with my outlandish ideas!  He would come home from work and find one more piece of furniture in the garage that I had picked up at a garage sale, thrift stores or the reuse centre.  These were my favourite haunts and I will sorely miss them this summer.  I find myself itching to make a trip around my circuit to see what treasures are to be had but for the sake of marital harmony I refrain……most days.  Our garage looked like an episode of Hoarders and Jim's stress level would go up and up and up.

I am super excited to share with you all the transformations of the furniture.  Some of their transformations are more dramatic than the house even.

Getting to know you…..(or you getting to know us!)

Hope you enjoyed the tour of what we had to start with!  It had great bones as you can see!  I will post the pictures of the progress we have made and the journey to fill it a bit later!  Today I thought I would give some back ground on who we are!

Since speaking in the third person is tricky and it isn't how I naturally speak (but I do get a big kick out of people who do)  I am going to just tell my story first and then Jim's and ours!

So my name is Brandi.  I grew up in a small Southern Alberta town called Picture Butte.  Picture Butte is  a small farming community in which my father grew up his whole life and my Mom moved there in her teens.  They met in high school and for some crazy reason she married him despite knowing him as a wild teenager.  They worked for my Grandfather and then eventually bought his business Barton Motors.  After years of running them successfully the businesses changed and they got out of all the aspects of what they had been running for years.  We had always been a skiing family.  My sister and I started skiing when we were just 3 and 4.  My Dad was passionate about skiing.  He loved teaching us kids and later on our cousins to ski.  He would put the t-bars around his ankles or knees  to make sure that the little ones were comfortable with the lift.  If we got scared going down he would put us on his shoulders.  Did I mention he was 6'4"?  So some of these things were super uncomfortable for him.  He loved the cold and he loved the thrill of whatever the mountain threw at him.  Fernie was his favourite hill and he loved the town. I have countless stories of Fernie and can recall lots of different establishments that we enjoyed( sometimes at the frustration of my husband who doesn't remember them and he is born and raised in Fernie) So when things changed in Picture Butte for our family he started to dream.  He had a vision of a family restaurant in Fernie some place that people knew.  Eventually he decided to open a Smitty's.  My Mom wasn't so keen on the big life change but Dad swept her up in his dream and she followed.  In 1992 my parents opened a Smitty's Pancake House in West Fernie.  It was a huge undertaking.

  I had just graduated high school and went off to college where I got my Diploma in Hotel/Restaurant Management.  it was a 2 year program.  I had to do a practicum for a summer job but not at my families business so I took a job in New Brunswick.  I was a housekeeper for that whole summer at an amazing hotel.  It was a CP Hotel at the time so I had lots to learn and high standards to maintain.  When I graduated I went to work for a short period of time at the Lodge at Kananaskis, but with my friend who came out to work with me leaving I didn't have the heart to stay.  I came back home to Fernie to work for my parents.  At that time we were in the midst of planning the Super 8 Motel, the second phase of the project and vision of my father's.  Knowing that I would be running the hotel my parents told me to go off and find a job that would be fun for the rest of the summer.  I ended up in Waterton National Park at the Prince of Wales hotel.  I was a housekeeper there as well.  I had lots of friends working and living in Waterton whom I had known for years so it was like one long good time.  I learned a lot there too.  And with Waterton, AB being one of my most favourite spots in the world it was a magical summer.  I came back that fall and worked in Smitty's and did a little work on the hotel too!  I trailed after the contractors asking a million questions until I understood lots of the guts.  In February of 1996 we opened Super 8 Fernie.  I was the manager.  It was insane.  I was a 21 year old kid, with a few years of schooling and hotel cleaning experience doing my best to take care of a 43 unit hotel.  I lived, breathed and slept at Super 8.  In March, just a month after opening my father died.  We were left with a restaurant, gas station and a new hotel.  My sister was home but she was 20 and had already voiced her opinions that she could not stay.  I stayed while Mom took care of the restaurant, I took care of the hotel.  For 9 years until we found a buyer.  They were crazy years.  Looking back I am not sure how we did any of it.  I was often found running between Super 8 and Smitty's helping during the busy times.  One of my favourite comments I got was "I just saw your twin working hard at the Hotel too!"  to which I replied nope that was me!  lol

So Jim's turn now.  His is a little less dramatic of a story!   He was born and raised in Fernie and to him there is no better place to be or be from  ( he is pretty close to being right, I think)  His parents came to Fernie from Italy.  His Mom came first with her mother after her father passed away her sister and brothers were already here in Fernie establishing their lives.  His father came over to marry his mother.  He is the only member of his family to have immigrated.  They married and had Jim and his older sister.  He does have a beautiful Italian name (Gennaro) but it is often mispronounced so he just goes by Jim! He spent his youth playing tennis, darts and oddly enough not skiing! Jim went to school in Fernie and squeaked by and graduated.  He went to work at the local coal mines and when they shut down he took jobs at the local lumber yard and went into the bush and became a logger.  When that industry went down he then went to work again at a coal mine.  That is Jim's story in a nutshell, well almost..

Jim won a golf game one day in May and his buddies had to buy him lunch.  The boys chose Smitty's, to either Jims good fortune or not (depends on what's going on his answer).  I was working that day, in the restaurant and made some smart remark to the table.  He thought I was funny, and asked his friend who was working that day to set us up.   His friend said. No.  So Jim kept bugging him until he finally broke down and said he would ask me.  My brain said no but for some reason my mouth said yes and that was it.  We have been together ever since.  Jim had just started at the mine when we got together and when things changed with our restaurant manager, Jim jumped in and ran Smitty's for us.  Once we sold Super 8 in 2004 I was Jim's full time on call helper!  I wasn't scheduled but I was available whenever he needed an extra hand, and if the kids were with me theirs as well.  Then in 2010 my Mom sold Smitty's and Jim went to the mine.  I became a full time stay at home mom.  And I have loved it.  I enjoy helping out at school with the kids and being there for them if they need it.  I has also given me time to think of what I want to do and regroup from the pressure of being so young and running the business.  It has been a good break and I realize that I miss meeting people and how much I truly enjoyed helping people make memories on their vacation.  I have also discovered I love houses and decorating.  Jim is very good at hands on and being patient and careful with the details of projects.  He is also a ball of energy that needs to be directed!  We work pretty good together most of the time, considering we both have a bit of a stubborn streak.

So with all these factors and the house coming to us at a time when we were thinking of new ventures and I was soul searching on what I could do and enjoy, Barton Manor has come to be.  I have had immense joy in furnishing and decorating Barton Manor.  I am now looking forward to the next step which is entertaining in the space.  I can't wait to meet people, and to show them some Fernie hospitality.  It really is one of our favourite things.

Can't wait to meet you all in the halls of Barton Manor.

Brandi And Jim

Where we started from Part 2

Its time for the second part of the tour.  I am going to be going upstairs now.  We will be starting from the furthest to the left bedroom.  I like to go through the house like I would show it, it is a little quirk of mine that I get to indulge on here!  haha  It is fun going back and looking at the changes that we have done in the house.  Inside the house we didn't do as much painting only 2 rooms, as much for time purposes as for the fact that poor Jim had done so much painting outside that he was pretty tired of being covered with paint….he would go to work and the guys always knew when he changed paint colours!

Well enough with the chatter here is the upstairs as it was on the day we bought it:

Up Up and Away

A turn on the landing:

Looking from the far right of the house the red curtained room is where we start the tour, the next room is the door to the right of the room with the red curtains, then the middle room and the two doorways in the very front of the picture are the red room to the right and the bathroom to the left.

This room is called the Stag Leap Room

(Sorry for the lid up) 

This little bathroom is the ensuite to the room with the red curtains

This room is called Curry Bowl 

The Curry Bowl room is a very large room with great views out of both windows.  It is the only room with 2 sets of windows and a painted floor!  I love it.

The wonderful windows in the porch.

This little gem of a room is called the Aiguille Du Midi Room, it is the tiniest of the rooms but it has one of he house's most charming features, a sun porch.  It has a view that is amazing and windows that flip up for that summer screened porch feel.  

This is in the porch, so quaint.

This is the Algonquin room.  It is the biggest and one of the rooms we ended up painting.  

The bathroom off the Algonquin room (sorry again for the toilet seat!)

The Main bathroom.

The crowning glory of the bathroom the claw foot tub!


A note about the naming of the rooms.  The names are a remanent of the house's past.  The previous owners named the rooms and the owner's father had made some signs for the doors with the rooms name.  I thought they were charming and the one room's name the Algonquin is the name of the first hotel I worked in, way back when in  St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, New Brunswick The other rooms were named for their favourite ski runs at the resort and a resort in France where they had worked.  I am a firm believer in houses carry a piece of the past and I do like to acknowledge those that came before me so we decided to keep the names.

The Blank Canvas or Where We Started From

Well it has been FOREVER since my last blog!  I am sorry for that.  I am now endeavouring to get some pictures up and going for you all.  Lots has happened since the first set of pictures I posted.  We are now done…..for now.  There are lots of things I still want to do but they will have to wait!  We have our first guests coming next week so have been busy doing up the final touches to be ready for them.  Pretty excited, and not gonna lie nervous too, letting my baby out in the world, to do what we have prepared it for.  I think I am going to do a tour of before of what the main floor looked like on the day we purchased it.

The front porch

Door that leads off the porch into the house

other side of the porch

This is the staircase that you see when you enter the front hallway you can see it with the door to the basement open and closed.  To the left is the dining room that leads to the kitchen and to the right leads into the living room.

 

The dining room with the counter that leads into the kitchen on the right hand side of picture.

Another view of the dining room to show the size of it.

The kitchen with the other door to the basement opened blocking the wet bar.  The little hallway at the back is too the main floor powder room and the back door to the back yard.

The living room the front end windows.

The back of the room with the fireplace.

So that is the main floor and what it all looked like on the day we bought it.  So far most of the work we have done is outside and with the furnishing of it all most rooms were in good shape and we liked the previous owners colours, so that was a bonus!  Enjoy!  Next blog entry will be upstairs.

The Beginning

June 9th

Well June 9th isn't really the beginning.  To be honest it started a few months before but June 9th is the day we took possession of what we now call Barton Manor.  It's previous incarnation was The Beaver Lodge Chalet.  It is a heritage house in downtown Fernie, BC.  We have loved it for years and when a friend was looking at buying a house the neighbour told her the one next door was for sale…..(yes she was trying to hand pick her neighbours!)  anyways she and her husband took a look and she called me right after saying we just looked at your dream house.  It is not for us but you should go look.  So we did, and she was right.  It is old, it has style, history and class.  All the features I love in a house and it would fit my family nicely.  It is the house that we will have our family come home to in the years when they leave the house.  I can see this.  We are, however not moving….yet.  You see we had been looking for income property, I have been out of the workforce for a few years and I need to do something.  I don't have many transferable skills that make me employable.  I do know hotels as I did run one for 9 1/2 years and I am excited to begin this new chapter!

So our plan is to use Barton Manor as a Vacation Rental until we finally bite the bullet and move.  After 15 years and many reno's we love our current home too.  We are currently painting the outside and doing some yard work to get Barton Manor ready.  The previous colour was a sage green with cream trim and a red door.  With all the greenery around the house we felt that she needed some pop and pizzaz to bring some attention to her.  We have mowed, pruned, de-cluttered, whippersnipped, weeded, swept the yard and sanded and painted the house.  It is a long process and if the weather would co-operate it would be much further along.

So I am a history lover and have started to do some research on the house I haven't gotten too far but do know the house was built in 1910 I have seen a cool picture in the archives of the Fernie and District Museum.  I know the house was the bank manager for the Home Bank of Canada's Fernie Branch.  I also know that the bank broke in 1923 taking approximately $800,000 of Fernie money down with it.  So far that is all I have on the house.  I do know that in the 1970-80's the property was used as the business offices of JRT a telecommunications business.  It has also been the bed and breakfast- Beaver Lodge Chalet.  

Barton Manor's name came to be for a few reasons.  I did find out that there was a local family called the Barton's they had a sewing machine and music store.  So that got me thinking, my Grandfather's middle name was Barton after his mother's maiden name,  it was his middle name and my father's middle name and many years ago my Grandfather started an automotive business  in 1952

called Barton Motors.  He ran school buses, had some car sales, had a gas station and a tire shop as well.  My parents bought the company from my Grandfather and kept the company going getting out of automotive and into  a restaurant and hotel.  My mother kept the business alive and thriving after the death of my father, Barton Motors has been a company I have known my whole life and what it stands for and represents is huge in my life.  I am lucky too that my husband also worked for Barton Motors and was a major player in helping my Mom to keep this company successful.  And I am blessed that he too became attached to it.  Barton Motors is still in operation today once again in a different capacity.  It is because of Baron Motors that we have been so blessed to have met as a couple---we met in the restaurant, and we were able to work together for many years making a good living.  I knew I wanted to call it a Manor, Jim liked that too, and he said to call it Barton Manor as a tribute to my mother, father and family that came before.  He told me that I had given him my name and  he would like to honour my family too---this is not the first time he has said this to me----(yes I do know I am a lucky girl)  Manor is also just two letters off Motors, so it seems to fit!  So Barton Manor it is.

 p

June 9th the day we bought Barton Manor

I am hoping to use this blog as a tool to show the changes we have made and the process of creating Barton Manor.  I hope you enjoy the journey.


Brandi

P.S. The photo layout is not great but I want to get this out and I promise it will get better! :)

Artist rendering of colour scheme

During!!!!

 

Trim work and being done and if you look closely my hubby's backside….sorry.