Grandma and grandpa raised three kids in cozy home
Little bungalow wraps visitors in a warm embrace
Grandma’s house is made of love and comfort, juice and cookies.
By the way: Why was it grandma’s house, not grandpa’s? Because grandpa was in the garage or tool shed or under the hood of the car. OK?
At the moment I’m visiting the quintessential grandma’s house.
Joan and Bob MacGregor own it, but it is Joan’s for reasons already mentioned.
Joan offers photographer Larry Wong and me coffee or tea. No thanks. Cookies? Well, OK. Juice? Yes, please. The MacGregor home is in Edmonton. It was built in 1948. The MacGregors bought the house 49 years ago, in 1964.
Joan did all the wallpapering. If Bob had helped, she says, they wouldn’t be 57-years married right now.
Joan, age 75, is a pistol. She bikes in summer and skis in winter, when she’s not baking cookies, decorating for a holiday.
Bob sold Zenith products wholesale throughout northern Alberta before he retired. He’s quieter than Joan, with a dry sense of humour.
When I ask Joan about all the decorations, Bob mumbles something about it being a darn fine question. Joan laughs.
The home’s decor is largely mid-century modern, as the esthetes would term it.
It is what my generation experienced on Sunday visits or summer holidays.
The floors are the original hardwood; ceilings are coved. The dining table belonged to Joan’s mom.
The house is small by modern standards. The MacGregors raised three children in less than 1,000 square feet.
The house cost them $13,500 and the MacGregors wondered if they’d be able to make the payments.
Originally, the place only had two bedrooms. A third was constructed downstairs, then removed to make way for a large rumpus room.
The master bedroom isn’t big, but ample. The second bedroom was shared by the MacGregor girls, Rebecca and Christine, who were 12 years apart in age. Robert got the downstairs bedroom.
The one-for-all upstairs bathroom is also snug. But the mosaic floor tile is gorgeous. One of Joan’s friends painted a mural on the back of the bathroom door and extended the colours to the walls.
Downstairs is the aforementioned rumpus room, with comfy seating and the TV. This is Bob’s space, though Joan has a spot for sewing, of course.
The MacGregors’ kitchen has been renovated a couple of times, with new cupboards.
During one renovation, the cabinetmaker came up with a solution to Joan’s need of counter space for her baking. In one lower cupboard sits an articulated shelf that rises out and up, then locks into position to create a deep counter space. Joan uses it to prepare bread and cookie dough.