Reminiscing

When I was elected  and before , farmers throughout Ontario were  abandoning old farmhouses and  building  themselves modern bungalows at the road.

The volunteer fire brigades might be invited to set the old one alight and use it for fire practice.

At that time many  small frame  houses in the country  had no front steps up to the door. Taxes were higher with steps.

Later it became  a  DIY to renovate old farmhouses  while living in them.

Decorator  magazines  and T.V. shows featured  divine transformations.

One owner was asked the question;  Was  it worth it?

The answer was prompt and decisive. They couldn't wait to sell and forget  the  cataclysmic misery  of  ten years of living in a construction site and not knowing what the next problem would be.

I was asked ;" what  do you think ? Would you renovate  a hundred year old farmhouse?"

I thought  about  what I knew.

About sagging ceilings , bulging walls of lathe and plaster. Sloping floors with  bumps and rises and patches of rot here and there; Dirt  floors in basement crawl space.

Stairs ,little  more than ladders,sloping  towards the  outside wall of the  house ,leading to the second floor . Two sets .One out of the kitchen.

 Smell of old plaster and rodent  and insect infestation  I thought of  attic floors with  ceiling high enough for  sleeping pallets  for children and  a doorway that wasn't full height either. A wood burning stove might b in in the centre of the main floor with a metal chimney going up through a hole to the attic and through the roof.

House fires were regular events in the city and the country.

I said;

If an old farmhouse had any  renovation value , I think the old farmer would be the first to recognize it.

Instead , they  built modern bungalows down by the road.   Or  they sell the farm and winter  every year in Florida.

The  farm is their pension.  Farming doesn't provide  security for old age.