Mike Freeman always said his daughter Mackenzie, known to all as “Shermy,” had an old soul in a little body. At 16 years old, she was working on the 1966 Dodge Valiant she still owns, refinishing furniture and sewing her own vintage-style clothes. Laurie Freeman, Ms. Freeman’s mother, says she was an oddball: “When a kid under 10 listens to Frank Sinatra and the show she watches is Lawrence Welk, you start thinking …”
So, it was no surprise when the 27-year-old, a driver for Mr. Freeman’s school bus company, and her fiancé (now husband), 31-year-old Frazer Willan, a mechanic, decided to buy a house and do most of the renovations themselves … with a little family help.
“We had been toying with the idea of buying a house,” Ms. Freeman says, thinking back to the summer of 2009. “We weren’t engaged yet but the market was good.
“Dad mentioned the house down the street was for sale, and on our way to see [it], we saw a garage sale so we stopped, and we got talking to the owner and they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re selling the house, so why don’t you come look through it?’” Almost a year passed before the couple got serious and revisited the house, which is located just down the road from her parent’s place in Lake Scugog.
They took possession in April, 2010, but waited until after they were married before moving in; this gave them two years to get things ready.
“At first, we were really overwhelmed and didn’t really know where to start,” Ms. Freeman remembers. First was ripping out all the carpet. Then, after taping off all the windows, her father came over with his paint sprayer and sprayed all the rooms “so everything was sealed.”
The mahogany-veneered kitchen cabinets were “covered with about an inch of cooking grease,” she laughs. But instead of replacing them, the doors were removed and brought to Mr. Freeman’s workshop where they were scraped, sanded down and then painted with “old school enamel” to emulate vintage metal kitchen cabinets. Ms. Freeman then hand-painted the brown tiles dotting the original backsplash a vibrant turquoise to match the rest of the kitchen, and sealed them with ceramic glaze.
Their stove is a family member too. Originally, her great grandmother’s, it was passed down to her grandmother, then to Ms. Freeman. Like most vintage appliances, it has a history and quirks: “My grampa was a tinsmith and he actually fixed the bottom.” She also jokes that the push-button controls have a tendency to jump off the control panel into whatever’s cooking.
The kitchen island consists of two salvaged barbershop stations installed back-to-back. “Dad screwed them together and body-filled down the sides so they’re flat; this is why this ugly line is here,” Ms. Freeman says, pointing to the visible seam down the centre of the turquoise countertop.
In the dining area, Mr. Freeman rewired a vintage sputnik light fixture that now hangs over the vintage Canadian Saarinen-style dinette with original green vinyl upholstery. Two sideboards hold the couple’s vintage kitchenware and dishes, a vintage commercial shake-maker purchased at auction, and an Orange Crush sign from Mr. Willan’s work. Near the patio doors is a vintage birdcage housing another family member, Clark the Budgie.
Replacing the flooring throughout the kitchen and dining area with new VCT was another project the couple took on. “Dad started us in the centre and did some, and then we continued.”
The living room drapes are one of Ms. Freeman’s favourite things, because they span the whole wall. “They’re not original, but you’d think they were; all the hardware was up there [and all] I had to do was throw them up.” The rest of the furniture, lighting and accessories in the living room were mostly rescued from auctions, antique barns, church sales and hospital auxiliary stores, some of it before Ms. Freeman met Mr. Willan.
“She’s the decorator and I’m just the farm boy,” Mr. Willan jokes.
The “Jayne Mansfield bathroom” has pink accessories, pink flamingos and, while not quite pink, the original sandy-beige fixtures. A framed photo of Ms. Mansfield was a gift from Ms. Freeman’s aunt. The poodle-themed spare bedroom, often used by Ms. Freeman’s younger sister Georgie, has a painted pink vanity and her grandmother’s old wrought-iron bedframe.
The story of the second floor addition is well known around town. The house was built in 1965 by township reeve Joe Dowson, a local character and part-time welder. According to lifelong resident Mike Freeman, there was a law that prohibited the construction of houses smaller than 800 square feet; because this house was smaller, “Joe opened the top and added this room.” The long open space now houses the Riddle Inc. office (Ms. Freeman and her father’s photography business), as well as Ms. Freeman’s sewing studio, replete with her collection of vintage patterns stored in a comic book carousel.
Future projects include turning the sun porch into an Asian-themed lounge and, perhaps, a period-appropriate kidney-shaped pool in the backyard. Right now, however, the couple is focusing on completing the restoration of a 1957 Fleetwing trailer, currently housed in Joe Dowson’s former welding shed (now Frazer’s workshop).
They can’t wait to go antiquing on the way to the campground.
A version of this story ran in Atomic Ranch Magazine.