In this first‑person narrated video, Basil takes viewers on a detailed tour of his rural property at 74 Old Blue Rocks Road. He recounts the step‑by‑step restoration of a dilapidated cattle barn into a solid horse barn, describing foundation work, roof repairs, and incremental excavation to raise the interior height. He then moves to the adjacent wagon house, explaining how he leveled the site, sourced shale, and built the structure using hand‑cut spruce logs and engineer‑designed trusses, emphasizing its durability. Basil showcases the surrounding landscape, highlighting sunset views, a deck, and a large lumber pile that could support future outbuildings. He proceeds inside the historic house (circa 1870s), noting its three‑bedroom layout, recent steel roof, insulation upgrades, and interior finishes such as a wood‑pellet stove. He mentions the house’s heritage as a former fisherman’s home, the origin of the “Garden Lots” name, and the proximity to Lunenburg, a hospital, and a school. Throughout, he shares personal anecdotes about logging in winter, his love for the property, and invites interested viewers to consider the lifestyle offered by this 2‑acre, countryside setting.
Chapters
Good morning, folks. Basil here, and I'd like to tell you a story. It'd be quite interesting, I promise you. If you got a good comfortable place to sit down, listen to it for a bit, please do so, especially if there's any children there with you. Well, I'd invite them along as well, you see. So what I'll tell you, what I'll I'll take you over yonder and I'm going to show you around my barnyard and home as such. Show you what we have to offer. So why don't you join us on the other side. Well, here we are folks, back on the other side. And now I'd like to show you around my barn and tell you a little bit about it. She was in pretty rough shape when I first come here. The water come through one end and crossed the floor and out the other end like a little brook when it rained a lot. Could have caught a trout, probably. But anyway, we dug it out myself here quite a bit and got the ground all good and got a good floor into it and fixed the foundation all up. I did this each year little by little. The first year was important just to get the roof tight and foundation fixed up a little bit, and so we did that. But as time went on, I went all around the bottom of her. Year by year, I would do a side here, and then I'd do another side. And over time, I got it done. And it's very, very well— good solid barn now for horses. And you see, in the beginning, it was just a cattle barn in the old days, so it didn't have a whole lot of height. Pick and shovel and wheelbarrow— a truckload, I guess it was, that I took out. And then other fellows took out 2 truckloads that we dug down. 2, 2.5 feet, you see, to get the height for the horses. Did a wonderful job. Not sure what else I could tell you about the barn, but it's in pretty good shape. And now let me take you over to the wagon house. Hello again, folks, and here we are at the wagon house, and I'd like to tell you a little about this project. First of all, this piece of land here kind of set down on a hole. I told a fella he ought to bring some shale in here and build it up so it's level with the barnyard. I didn't know it was going to take $5,000 worth, but oh well, the barn's level now with the wagon house. Anyway, we have a good foundation in tower. Nice thing about this one is, you see, well, if I had a dollar for every time I swung one of them hitting the wedge to knock a tree down, Well, I wouldn't. I'd probably have a bit of money today, I suppose. You see, I spent many winters in the woods logging during the wintertime, and then that is really one of my true passions, I guess, where I get peace and all that kind of stuff there. But nevertheless, anyway, I logged for quite a few winters with my chainsaw, and anyhow, all the stuff that took to build this building is logs that I sawed. Cut down rather, and then brought them here to the barnyard, had them all sawed out right here, and then I started building her all out of just good solid rough lumber. The engineers tell us I had to go with their own engineer trusses, so all right. But she's fully boarded up, the walls all the way across the roof, solid 1-inch rough boards, good premium spruce of course. And when the building inspector come and looked at it and how we did it the old-fashioned way, he kind of chuckled, wonder why we made it so strong. And I thought we were just going to code. And no, we said, gosh, you could drive a school bus across this and it wouldn't move. Well, that made me feel good. So this building here will be here for a long, long time to come. 24 by 40. Look at the pellet stove there to heat it with in the wintertime, but that needs to be upgraded. Other than that, it's a great spot, many possibilities. So folks, this here is just a short walk back behind our property. If you want to take a walk about, this here is the view you would see. It's a pretty amazing spot. I can tell you folks, if you want to watch sunsets, well, bring yourself a chair in the evenings because they don't get much prettier than this one, I think. I'm sure there's a lot just as But anyhow, it's quite relaxing and you don't have to far to go. So that's one view. Now this here's another view from this side of the hill. I kind of thought I'd point it out to you. It's rather refreshing. You will see that I got the back of the house kind of painted a dark color. Well, that's only because to sit there on that deck, you see that bright yellow, I just can't handle it on my eyes, you see. Anyway, you can only look one side at a time. And also you notice there on my middle of my lawn there, there's a big lumber pile. Well, again, those are logs I cut out the other winter and we just had them sawed up a bit ago. And there's enough there you could build another wagon house plus if somebody wants them. Well folks, adding the canopy, boy, I tell you, that was a wonderful thing too. Not only keep the sun off you, but the rain as well. And here's where I'd sit in the evenings, folks, and watch the sunset go down on over. It's a very nice quiet place to be. So come on inside, let me show you around. Welcome here to my home. I like to collect some of the local artwork around town as well. This one here I picked up not so long ago. Called the Checkerboard Ernie. Maybe I'll get to tell you the story about that sometime. Anyhow, this is the living room, and it's got quite a nice little spot here, lots of room. It's heated with a wood pellet stove, and well, that needs a little bit of fine-tuning, or you could just simply replace it. It's not a big deal, but it's able to keep the whole house warm for the whole winter. I think the house, I don't know the exact date onto it, but I remember looking on a deed and I think somewhere around 1875, 1880 maybe. Don't hold me to that though, please. But what I know, it was on into the 1800s by so-and-so who had it. Anyway, it probably would have been the fisherman's home at that time. And so he built it here. Had a farm, of course, with cattle those days, and lots of gardens around because, well, that's why this place is called Garden Lots. You see, when you bought a piece of land in town in the old days, right next here was a spot to plant your garden, hence became the name Garden Lots. This here is on a 2-acre property, thereabouts, with all these beautiful views surrounding you. You're only just a 5-minute walk to the town limits, and 15 minutes you can be on the waterfront in Lunenburg enjoying all the beautiful activity that goes on down there throughout the year. It has 3 bedrooms upstairs, used to was 4, but I took one, the wall out and done some work with it and made a nice big large bedroom for the master bedroom. Then it's got a nice attic up there, you can crawl up, it's good and dry, good place to put stuff. It had a new steel roof on one side just a couple of years ago, and prior to that roof was shingled on the opposite side just a few years ago as well. House is all newly painted outside as well. In here, just recently, I took the old wall paneling off that they stuck up after they tore the plaster all out. Wasn't much for insulation and all, but anyhow, I tore it down, put good insulation into it, vapor-barriered it, and chip-rocked it. Oh, made a wonderful world of difference. Well, the kitchen, she's probably 1950s, '60s style, I guess. And then the bathroom, well, there's nothing fancy about it, but it's clean and simple. And the washer and dryer is right here next door to the bathroom, so pretty— everything's pretty handy. Well folks, this is where I get a lot of enjoyment in my relaxation times, here enjoying watching my wonderful vegetable garden grow. I forgot to mention that, you know, we also have a hospital right here in town. As well as a wonderful school. And, uh, we're only just 1,000 feet outside the town limits, living in this wonderful country setting. So if you're interested in something like this type of living, why don't you just give us a call?
