Jacques Thivierge and his wife become the owners of this superb house in November, 1999. Restoration work gets underway in June 2000 and continues for several years.

Their objective is to restore the house’s distinctive style and return it to a single-family dwelling. Jacques will spend most of his spare time, from June to December 2000, making the ground floor liveable.

He tore down all the walls that were about 100 years old and rebuilt around a much older wall built of 2X6X8 lumber, whose joists were rounded toward the interior to accommodate the transversal joists solidified by forged nails.

Jacques found the location of the original staircase and rebuilt it in the same place, allowing access from the ground floor to the upper level from the interior.

The beams covered with planks to hide the wood which had been hewn by axe, the many layers of wallpaper, the forged nails, the non insulated stone walls and the 2X6X8 joists rounded toward the interior motivated Jacques to such an extent that he decided to design the kitchen in the style of the era. He built his own cupboards and kitchen counters in order to optimize the space under the staircase.

Although Jacques is not a furniture maker by trade, the interest generated by the old construction and the desire to know more about the heritage left us by our ancestors, motivated him to conserve the historic aspects of this house with great respect, without concern for the heavy workload…

For her part, Michelle Martin supported Jacques in his restorations by removing the layers of wallpaper the years had left on the beams of the kitchen. She refreshed the walls with new colours and imposed a few decorative ideas, cheerfully accepted by Jacques.

Wishing to know more about the house, its date of construction and its successive owners, she undertook to research its history.

It is with enthusiasm that she can claim a direct lineage with Louis Bédard, the son of Isaac and brother of Jacques Bédard, who lived in this house.