Our homeplace in Quebec

We live in a former parish schoolhouse, which supported the children of farm families nearby in the first half of the 20th century.  Our place was built in 1910, according to the previous owner.It was decomissioned as a school in the mid-60's, I think, and then converted to a house.  It was simple then, and this photo, from 1970, shows a barren landscape, and a house with features that we don't have now.   I guess someone was living here, with the power pole and car.  

 

But the residents who planted the birches, aspens, and spruces in our current landscape were yet to move in. They must have come here sometime in the 1980's.

The bay window has since been converted to double windows;  the door to the basement was blocked off, with a sturdier door to the basement added. 

And the owner before us modernized the house as far as electricity, water and a new roof (as well as adding all of the charming outbuildings).

We're stewards of this place now, complete with gardens that we tend, a mix of ornamental shrubs but now mostly native-inclined plantings, with fruit trees and berry-producing shrubs.

Very different than the barren landscape of 1970.