A New Chapter

What a joy it is to welcome this new chapter for Dunn House in Bonavista.  This project has been a true labour of love, made possible by so many wonderful people.  

We cannot thank John Norman and the incredible team at Bonavista Living enough, along with the many tradespeople and craftsman who helped bring this vision to life.

With a deep respect for the home's heritage character, my husband Johnny and I have found immense joy in restoring, redesigning, and reimagining every aspect of the house.

Countless hours, endless care and extraordinary skill have gone into restoring this property. Every person who worked on Dunn House brought not only their knowledge, experience, and craftsmanship, but also their generosity, passion, and spirit.  Together, they have transformed a home that sat dormant for years into a place that feels alive once again.  Whilst the work has been arduous at times and we faced many challenges, the team have brought so much lightness, joy and humour to the project and infused it into the house too. 

We are deeply grateful for the contributions from the entire crew.  This project has given us far more than a home; it has introduced us to a community of remarkable people and we have made cherished friends along the way.

Thank you for helping bring Dunn House back to life.  We are so happy to to begin our new chapter here.

Before

When we visited Dunn House for the first time, this is what it looked like.  A lot of the interior walls had already been stripped down back to the studs and the house was ready for it’s new beginning.

We learned that the house had previously been a much loved home, which made us happy.  However it had sat empty for a long time, was run down and water was penetrating the damaged roof.  

So many people have told us how much they loved the house and felt sad to see it empty and falling deeper into disrepair.  There was a collective excitement to see the house get restored.

Thank you to John Norman and Bonavista Living for seeing the possibilities, saving this house and for providing us with the opportunity to work on this very special project. 

We are so grateful for all of the support we have received from the community as we took on this task.  So many lovely supportive messages and greetings in the grocery store or at the petrol station, showing interest in how the project is going and providing words of encouragement and enthusiasm. 

It is a privilege to be able to take on this project and we feel very lucky to be here.  Reimagining this space and carefully redesigning the house and layout for our home and creative studios has been a major undertaking.  

We are now ready and excited to be rounding the final corner of this journey.

Moving

Wow.  I can’t fully describe how liberating this feels.

More than three years ago Johnny and I sold most of our belongings and carefully packed up what remained.  Those treasured items were loaded into a tiny section of an absolutely enormous moving truck and sent across the country.

It was fascinating to watch this giant truck arrive, filled with other people’s precious belongings.  Every item was tagged with a barcode so it could be reunited with its owners at the other end.  On board were possessions belonging to people who were also moving to Atlantic Canada from across Canada and the U.S.A. Our items were sandwiched between belongings from British Columbia and Chicago.  It felt surprisingly emotional to think about all the people experiencing the same mix of excitement, overwhelm, stress, and anticipation that we were.

We then set off on our own cross-country journey in our Subaru, travelling to meet that giant truck at a storage unit in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  All of our precious things remained in that storage unit until now.

We never imagined this transitional period would take three years to complete.  Renting a truck, emptying our storage unit and finally bringing our belongings home to Bonavista has been an incredible experience.

The relief is immense.  The reward is even greater.  A long-awaited milestone and a truly triumphant moment in our lives.  Now comes the fun part - unpacking the boxes and rediscovering the treasures we haven’t seen in years.

Update

Moving to Bonavista, Newfoundland has been one of the most transformative journeys of our lives. And working with the team at Bonavista Living to restore Dunn House as our home and creative studios has been a truly unique experience.

After the pandemic, like many people, my husband Johnny and I found ourselves reassessing our lives. Whilst we were both really happy in the life that we had created in Ontario, we wanted to create a new chapter and go after something a little different. There were many factors which informed our decision to move to Bonavista including living by the ocean and access to nature. But, our decision was hugely influenced by the incredible rejuvenation that is happening in the town to restore, protect and rebuild the historical homes and properties which make this place so special.

In a world where the easiest path is often to build quickly, prioritize short term profit and replace character with convenience, it is deeply inspiring to see something different happening here. The work being done is thoughtful, deliberate and rooted in a genuine respect for history and place. It is not easy work, but it is meaningful work.

Working with the team at Bonavista Living and the many skilled tradespeople who have contributed to our project has far exceeded our expectations. We feel incredibly fortunate to have had so many talented and dedicated people pour their expertise, care, and craftsmanship into this special home.

As our house project nears completion, I find myself reflecting on the journey that brought us here. It has certainly had its challenges, but it has also been deeply rewarding.

A heartfelt thank you to Bonavista Living, John Norman and also the Bonavista Historic Townscape Foundation for their commitment to protecting, celebrating, and restoring this remarkable town. We feel incredibly lucky to be building our new life here and to be part of Bonavista’s story.

Creative Work Studios

When we relocated to Bonavista, we knew we weren’t just moving our home - we were moving our work studios too.

Both my husband Johnny and I work from home.  He’s a photographer; I create surface patterns.  We love working outdoors, near or far — capturing images and gathering inspiration.  But we wanted a place to return to… to design, edit, write, sketch, produce, dream, plan, and create.

When we purchased Dunn House and began restoring it with Bonavista Living we had the opportunity to reimagine the space around how we truly live and work.  We kept it as a four bedroom home - one for us, one for guests, and two that became something just as essential: Johnny's Studio and Kate's Studio.

This project has come such a long way, and this week we got our first look at the completed work spaces.  Finishing details, like the heating registers, lighting and electrical plates, still need to be addressed, but the space is clean, fresh and ready for magic. I don’t quite have the words yet for what this process has meant.  Maybe one day I will.  But for now, I can say this: I feel incredibly lucky.

Building a life as an artist isn’t easy.  It requires determination, resilience, passion, and persistence.  But it’s also a huge privilege and an immeasurable joy.  To have spaces where we can make, play, and bring ideas into the world… it feels like a dream realized.

Standing in these studios now - blank, quiet, full of possibility.  It feels like the beginning of something new.

We came here to start a new chapter.  And now, we have fresh, open pages to fill.  I can’t wait to create here!

This is what the two studio spaces looked like before:

The anticipation of what lied ahead (stood inside what would become Johnny’s studio):

The Face of Dunn House

Very excited to show a first look at the beautiful new face of Dunn House.  The incredible Bonavista Living team have been lovingly working on the restoration of the front facade to include, new wooden clapboard, cedar shake roof, hand crafted windows and the rebuild of the lovely front vestibule.  The work is not yet completed and there are still lots of special details to come including a new front staircase and installation of our front door with stained glass panels.

The project has come such a long way and I don't know about you, but I think Dunn House is smiling.

Midsummer Update

Bonavista is alive with whales, capelin, cod, puffins, foxes and flowers. And what a complete joy it is to have reached this special stage of our house project. The house's exterior is looking so pretty with the cedar roof, beautiful siding, hand crafted windows and doors and dreamy paint. Inside, the insulation, electrical and plumbing are completed and the walls are now going up. It feels very exciting to see the rooms take shape and our vision coming to life.

We have also been making so many big decisions for all of the special details that will go into the house. Picking lighting and fixtures and also designing the kitchen. Feeling so much gratitude to have such a special life experience and to be working with such an incredible, skilled, positive and genuinely wonderful team at Bonavista Living.

A Moment in Time

This weekend I spent a few hours inside Dunn House soaking up a special moment in time.  The electrical and plumbing have now been run throughout, most of the exterior is now wrapped (with the exception of the front vestibule which is getting rebuilt, will share more on that later) and the roof is completed.  The project is about to move onwards to the next stage.  This week insulation is getting installed and then after that drywall will start to go in which is going to completely change the space.  I am so excited to see the interior transform as the walls go up but I realized that this time has been so special, experiencing the raw interior and seeing the original bones of the house.  It was so nice to take some time to sit in the space.  

Thank you so much to the amazing Bonavista Living team for all of your incredible hard work to get the project to this stage.

April updates

Our new home is undergoing the most special transformation.  It is a unique stage of the process, a true metamorphosis is happening.

The Bonavista Living team have worked so hard to repair, reinforce and care for the bones of the house.  We faced some small timeline setbacks over the winter due to inclement weather, however in the past few weeks there has been an amazing flurry of activity as the installation of siding, windows, electrical wiring and plumbing has begun.  As these huge tasks continue, work will also soon begin on the installation of our ducted heat pump system and insulation.  It is wonderful to see so many elements coming together for the house.

Johnny and I feel very lucky. The team we are working with are amazing.  Everyone is so friendly, patient with our questions, helpful, collaborative and extremely skilled. 

What a unique life experience this is.  Feeling gratitude.

Exterior Colour Palette

Picking the exterior colour palette for Dunn House has been a joyful experience.  We knew all along that we would find our inspiration in the natural environment here on the Bonavista Peninsula.  We have loved discovering so many unique and beautiful palettes in the wild but after much consideration we settled on the prettiest muted green and blue for our exterior colours.

We are so grateful to the wonderful team at The Paint Shop in Bonavista who have been so helpful and have made the experience even more enjoyable.  We have selected Benjamin Moore stains and paints and the colours we have chosen are…

Clapboard:  Moonlight White

Window sashes:  Hollingsworth Green

Doors:  Serenata (blue)

It is very exciting to see the exterior house details come together.  Thank you so much to the Bonavista Living team for all of your hard work and perseverance on our project through the winter months.  Excited to share more soon.