Part 1 We bought a General Store! Recreating a 100 year old General Store!

adventure is in my blood finding treasures big or small and having fun is what it's all about with my wife Melissa and our three kids life is pretty full but there isn't a mountain we can't climb together this isn't your ordinary antique store my name is Alex Archibald and this is curiosity let's go back in time Edmonton was founded as a fur trading fort by the Hudson's Bay Company and first explored in 1754 by Anthony Hendon with an established route on the North Saskatchewan River Edmonton soon grew into a bustling city and with the arrival of the train in 1905 things really started to take off all over North America and Mattoon included small general stores popped up to serve their community you could buy anything from nails to bread these stores were the life of the neighborhood sadly with progress many of these shops were lost in the 1970s and 80s and as a result can be very difficult to find now I've been on the search for historic building for our store and guess what happened this week well hey everyone and welcome to today's episode it's been a long time coming but guess what I bought a general store so this is the kick off series this is the beginning this is the number one of a new series where we get busy converting this general store back into a proper retail space now it has been sitting for quite a while it's been used as a studio the previous owner has done some work but I'm gonna give you a tour and show you what we have to work with is we work on renovating and converting this building back into its former glory and back into 100 year old building it's gonna be amazing you got to follow along built in 1913 this building is nestled in the city's West End just near downtown in a trendy area called West mount it's situated on a little block nice tree-lined Street right across from me is a community hall nice little Park it really just kind of a pleasant place to be we chose this location one because it's a historic area there's lots of historic buildings around nice homes it's an up-and-coming area but also it's the right kind of building this space was originally pool hall and barber shop and then converted into a general store shortly after we're gonna go walk around and have a look and kind of do a conditioner report of what it's like but let's go inside the front doors and see what looks like inside and I'm wearing my general store proprietor gear today I got the bow tie I've got my hat so let's go inside and see what the inside looks like look it comes with my children already equipped and in place so we have the previous owners Jamie and Brenda so how long you guys had the place for 15 years it wasn't like this you know carpet on top of tile and there was a drop ceiling all that sort of pinboard kind of stuff that you know you put hooks on oh yeah if the entire walls were like that yes so we renovated but we just really focused on the historical building and brought this up to a usable standard and my father lived here for quite a few years it's six and a half years and then Cheney's been using it as a rehearsal space what a spoiled guy I've been able to have wonderful rehearsals here we've had some wonderful house concerts here and it's been a guest home for family and friends and Wow it's been really wonderful yeah Jays parents are getting up an age and they like to come up to Edmonton there are two residents like it yeah they really have enjoyed having their own little space you know well it really is a beautiful space and I'll have to do a little tour as we walk around here and show people this what a nice job you've done in the interior this is a lot different than the last space I bought that was a year ago oh yeah well she she definitely made good use of her square footage in here didn't she I can see I don't have as much stuff to worry about moving out already so that's a big plus but and you're a musician as well yes you have a website - do you know it yes jeanny net okay we're gonna have to check that out I'll put a little link in there too small thanks Alex we found this space originally why should Jamie reached out to us is what happened we had posted on Facebook I think it was and perhaps what we've been talking about a lot on YouTube that we were looking for a general store because we have an antique store and all the stuff we sell is historic or unique and it was probably about time that we had a building that suited what we do for business so Jamie approached us and said hey I've got a space we might look at selling and then it's been a long road to get here and in challenging but it's all coming together and now we're gonna have the store very very soon and what do you think about it so far yeah this is true um this part anyhow but we're gonna have a look around there is a some renovation to do there's some major redecorating we're gonna do but let me give you the tour and show you what I have to work with the one really nice thing about the space is does have high ceilings the ceilings are about 10 feet tall now originally there would have been shelves that ran along the walls and probably some showcases in fact we have some historic photos of the building when it was in use and it was an actual soda fountain in fact the neighborhood kids at one point as a practical joke painted a cross walk straight across because there was the school just down the way and apparently if the teacher couldn't find the kids he would just walk down here and drag him out back to school cuz you know they were probably here getting a milkshake or soda so lots of fun history in the neighborhood and I'm so glad the building actually still exists because a lot of these places get torn down and the previous owners have done a fantastic job with maintaining the architecture so we've got the nice wood trimmed windows the bay windows are still there the door is modern so really what I'm gonna be doing is looking trying to find a way to add fixturing maybe put a tin ceiling in antique the lights a bit paint out the wall so it matches the other colors in the room here that wouldn't have done feature walls back then but as you can see there's a lot of good and a lot of potential here and hardwood floors and beautiful shapes so really a lot of wonderful work has been done and makes it very easy for us the one challenge is the space isn't really a whole lot bigger than what we have right now in fact until the back addition is built it's actually smaller but we're gonna do a little walk see I have a plan for it and I'll show you why now that's a hatch it goes down to the basement there's not too much to see down there a little secret staircase and then that's where the furnace and stuff is it's not not a whole lot going on down there but I thought I'd one of these days we'll do the full walkthrough in a separate video and I'll show you what's down to the basement but you can see it has a nice little bathroom and I guess if I get myself in trouble with the missus I've got a full shower and a sink and everything going on in here so you know it is a usable livable space there's a nice little kitchen in terms of retail space I probably will use this to display we'll probably use it as a staff kitchen but also display antique pins on top and other sorts of things nice thing glass fixtures didn't look everybody who said that you should have a window over your sink at the potter's house well look there's a window over the sink really not as much to do in terms of renovation you know maybe find a way to clean up the electrical panel to look to that there's another little room back here which we'll have to figure out you know what's gonna go in here maybe a little office or who knows like have you noticed something and we're gonna get to that there's a little patch on the floor now that's usually where your doorway would go through so you're wet feet don't get your shoes or your shoes don't get those with the water from your feet all over the floor wreck the wood that's because there used to be a door and there's a whole addition on the other side the building and that's where there's gonna be a whole bunch of work right off the bat the other beautiful thing about the property is it has a nice big yard for future expansion these trees have been here for ages and this was never developed in fact I thought when I first saw this that there must have been another building here at one point that got knocked down but the truth is the people that owned this building had always kept this as a yard for their family so one thing I don't have in my current store is a yard and I envisioned don't ask me why I'm sure much to Melisa chagrin I imagine old Model T cars parked here you know like maybe a cool little building ah it's gonna be really neat there's so much potential for what we can do in this space more than we had before at the other store Melissa do you want to come and see the addition you've never seen it missus not seeing the addition because it's the one spot that needs let's just say a little TLC okay so back in the old days people would have their store at the front and then they would live in the back and so behind this big tree here is an addition which was at one point the residence for the store now there's been no effort or much effort at all put into renovating or maintaining this space this is gonna be where we need Josh Dakota hands all the guys that come back and rebuild this space on the back here originally we'd talk to a teardown but now we're thinking we're gonna try and save it the roof in this area is still good you know we haven't had any water in here about 1970s sort of paneling all over the place but the mission I think with this is that we would knock out all these walls open it up to one nice bigger room and really this is the size of probably like you know like a triple car garage once these walls are out and that's enough room to park some motorcycles or put pinball machines and that's where I want to put all the mancave stuff is back here the original garage is still here now we don't have much for parking out front there is street parking but we're thinking about turning this little back patch here into a little parking pad so we can probably put you know three four cars across the back there for customers which means I'm gonna have to take that fence out so people can access it from the alley and I'll have probably to talk to hens about removing that tree so it's kind of in the way right now as much as I hate taking trees down unless we can gravel it and people drive in a little bit we'll talk about that later future problems for future Alex but there you can see the addition on the back you believe this is actually happening and so this area has been developed in the last hundred years obviously what's happened is other things have happened there used to be a beautiful old house that was next door with big columns on it that got knocked down they put up an apartment building but one challenge is that the grading is higher see how it's built up probably about two feet higher than the my building well all their water is running down towards mine which is creating an issue in the basement where water is getting in in heavy rain not so much on the other side they built up but it actually slopes down so we're gonna have to try and figure out exactly what to do to fix the grading on that side we'll probably have to slope it or angle it so it creates a trough down the middle uh that's gonna be one of the big things that has to get done right away I know the the gutters are not in the right spot our grade kind of goes down a little bit here it's the other side is really bad so we're gonna to get that fixed so can you imagine it guys imagine nice old wooden shelves in here showcases push bar on the door maybe a tin ceiling up on the roof lots of potential and this is gonna be a much more interesting space than what we have right now I'm excited for this journey to start you guys should be excited to watch because it's gonna be so much fun but now I'm gonna do some research on what the heck an old general store actually looks like and the size of the building would have originally had advertising either big metal signs or painted advertising so I have to come up with a plan on what we're gonna do for a store sign and what we're to make the front and the sides of the building look historically correct and of course here is the big empty lot that also comes with the property it's wide enough to actually put a whole other building on and yeah I've got pictures of this space and there was I think tobacco or his figure I dad painted there and kids playing in the yard with their soapbox derby cars really really neat space so although I won't be on the main stretch here I will be just about a block and a half over from all this great stuff including one of my favorite bakeries Dutchess which could be potentially dangerous so when you're building a historic general store you have to kind of get an idea about what they should look like so we've come to the Ukrainian cultural center just outside of Edmonton where they have recreated town that has the old-fashioned general store inside of it we're gonna go check that out have a look around and get some ideas for this business why is there a Ukrainian cultural village just outside of Evanston well around the turn of the century many Ukrainian people came to Canada as they pretty much just scattered out of the Ukraine with all sorts of activities and uh people that was happening prior to World War one my family is well left around that time my great-great-grandfather parish sadly in the First World War and my great-grandmother she was born here in Canada and was a Ukrainian descent and so she would know all these expressions and sayings in Ukrainian I don't know much at all other than juju da Matta and penny hay and all the good things that you learned growing up around here but we're gonna explore and the kids will learn a little bit about their heritage so what they have is basically like a little town sort of built up and inside these buildings likely there's role players this gentleman back there who looks like he's scratching his horse's bottom here come listen Steven one thing to note is that they would oftentimes paint their advertising right on the front of the building they had an expression for what these guys are called I think they're like Wally's or something like that good guys and did this professionally we'll go down that way too let's take a deal gas station I can't help but look at buildings like this and want to buy a the old signs that are on the side or the old pumps let's go check this place out see the big long counter just like what I pulled out of the general store to iron that it wouldn't taken much to build it but it's original [Music] was a nice old stove right in the middle of the room - is it enough to keep you warm okay so this is just to keep you warm next up we're gonna check out the little grocery store and it is just that is little let's go inside this you haven't got it yet came to see what you had for sale in the old and the grocery store here you're working on violins to re-skill do you play violin well I don't know about the fixtures but it seems like every time we go in one of these old buildings there's a role player in it or somebody from the past so maybe I'll have to dress up like an old fashioned person and wear that bowtie and hat like all the time when people come shop at the store maybe that'll be my new thing if I'll get really into character and when people have a phone all just like I'll go crazy like wow what is that thing that you're holding Stephen says that people would be stoned and they call you which probably and this isn't actually a stucco building it's mud and straw but just packed on top of logs and then they painted it but I did the trick would have had to probably been a lot of upkeep I would think especially had goats get near your house need half the thing the architecture seems to be getting a little bit more let's say rustic around here that's got a cool low you want a house dig yourself a hole and cover it in dirt it's like a little Ukrainian hobbit house okay so what does it look like in here there's people everywhere hiding inside the buildings I guess doing their daily routines but still inside the hundred-year-old hotel and I'm kind of getting some ideas of paint colors and how they did stuff they would just run a piece of trim along the wall and then paint the top a different color than the bottom so it kind of had that look of wainscoting might be an idea or a trick we could use inside the store easy solution for the derelict edition that's on the side of my place is to do something kind of like this make it more or less an old-fashioned barn which means you're just putting some wooden siding on even leave it open beam it would be very difficult to heat so it might have to be sort of a cold storage area but it could be a cool spot to store things good to get some inspiration from some places like this to see how they would look back in the old days really like how they've got the planks oiled planks on the side of the wall wooden floor it's raw great possible decorating ideas when you're building a neat little addition off the side peaked wooden ceiling little shelves I like the feeling of this space how the spaces just feel very comfortable to be in and when you're stranded by so much wood it's very warm inviting and I always loved about wooden plank for us maybe there's something creative like this I can do with our space - food for thought so that's it it's official this is the start of the new series and it couldn't have come at a better time because my garage is getting completely filled up with shelves and showcases and stuff you can't even really see that there's a little ice set i hidden back there the stuffs not a go and very soon I'll be able to start putting some of these things inside the new building now I don't take possession for a little while so you might not see an update video for a couple weeks or so but the exciting news is here we got the space and the new series can begin watch as we transform this historic building back in time to the way it would have been about a hundred years ago with original style fixtures and counters and products it's gonna be amazing it incorporates some art we're gonna get our friends back involved with the project so stay tuned stay subscribed and follow along as we renovate a general store [Music] you

Channel: Curiosity Incorporated

Views: 223,634

Rating: 4.9685655 out of 5

Keywords: iMovie, curiosity inc, we bought a general store, we bought a hoarder house, hoarders, this old house, recreation, alex archbold, antiques, vintage, full episdoe, series, television, TV show, discovery channel, history channel, property brothers, HGTV, home depot, renovation, renovate, old store, country sotre, painting, do it ourself, DIY, do it yourself, amazing, fun, family, family show

Id: X1II__SMUEs

Length: 21min 6sec (1266 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 29 2019