Galleries

Gallery: The winds of change

Yarmouth native Mandy Rennehan returns to build her dream home in an abandoned windmill. Read our story on this incredible home here.

Aaron McKenzie Fraser

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  • Mandy Rennehan converted an abandoned windmill into her Yarmouth County home. Her father, Gary, bushwhacked the property and repaired the stone wall that encloses the property, which was solid and almost perfectly intact.
  • Mandy bought the circa 1950s windmill 12 years ago, along with an old house, horse barn, and surrounding acreage.
  • She added a great room onto the original structure. For such a large room, the massive beach stone fireplace and U-shaped leather sectional make it cozy. Mandy and her partner Ashlee Wilson commissioned the paintings on either side of the hearth from an artist in Spain who picked up on their nicknames Bear and Kitty. Mandy’s grandfather made the model ship.
  • Always fascinated with wood, Mandy used several different kinds in the kitchen, from the painted wood of the cabinetry, to pine planks on the floor, and weathered barn boards on the wall. A porthole window over the sink adds a nautical touch.
  • A bait bag is used to collect wine corks—a testament to three years of good times and great company.
  • The original windmill is three storeys tall; the stairway between floors has a rustic look, with barn board walls and iron brackets for the hand rail.
  • A luxurious bathroom, complete with a deep copper tub and two matching sinks from Native Trails in California, is on the second floor of the windmill.
  • There’s a spacious bathroom on the bottom floor of the windmill that features a vanity made from an antique dresser. Tiles that look like wood planks line the walls of the large shower.
  • The original iron structure of the windmill is on view in the bedroom, which is on the top floor of the tower mill and offers sweeping views of Darling Lake and the Bay of Fundy.
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