A few months after buying a barn on Church Street in Sackville, Dawn Purchase is working to make it a place for workshops and events. She has welcomed visitors inside and hopes to have a heated workspace ready by spring, while looking ahead to planting basketry willow on the property.
Purchase bought the barn in July. Although she had a business plan in place, she says she wasn’t immediately sure how everything would come together. Electricity was one of the first things she needed before she could get further into the work.
“Once I got that, it just made me feel a whole lot more confident about the whole thing. We could use power tools,” she says.
Showing the barn to family and visitors has had an effect, too. Purchase says being able to open the doors helped her feel that a project she had spent so much time planning was becoming real.
When CHMA spoke with her in July, the recent Mount Allison graduate had purchased the property after developing a business plan with help from the Community Business Development Corporation. Her interest in growing willow for basket weaving led her to look for land. She later added events to the plan as another way to earn income while pursuing basketry.
Making the barn usable
Purchase has had to decide how to adapt the building while keeping the qualities she likes about it. She initially hoped to keep the horse stalls, but after talking with friends and family familiar with construction, she decided removing them would give her more options, particularly when it came to putting in a bathroom.
“I don’t want it to feel like an office building or a brand-new venue space,” she says.
For walls she redoes, Purchase plans to use rough-milled wood or reclaimed pallet boards. In a video update, she said she had already been taking apart pallets to save the lumber. Her goal is to keep the warmth and older appearance of the barn as she makes room for new uses.
The main section will remain uninsulated and operate seasonally. A smaller insulated room would give her an office and a place to teach throughout the year. She imagines holding basket-weaving classes for roughly six to 10 people there and hopes the space will be ready by spring.
Water and sewer connections need to come first. Purchase says she has paid the municipal fees and was told the connections would be made before winter. Once they are in place, she plans to work on the interior plumbing and insulation.
“Waiting has been one of the biggest jobs,” she says.
Purchase has had to get comfortable with the pace of a project that depends in part on other people’s schedules.
Adjusting the plan
Along with working on the barn, Purchase has been participating in markets. The past few months have helped her understand how much time she can spend weaving and teaching while also managing the property.
“There will definitely be more events in here than I thought,” she says.
Purchase still wants basketry to be part of the business, although she expects fewer regular workshops than she originally planned. Renting the space would provide another source of income while giving her room to pursue the craft. She says she has been ordering willow to plant in the field next spring.
The day-to-day routine has taken some getting used to as well. Purchase describes loading her truck, bringing supplies back and forth, packing a lunch and occasionally arriving to find she has forgotten a tool.
Even after securing a loan and buying the barn, she wasn’t sure whether she could carry out her plans without taking another job and working on the property on weekends. Seeing how much she has been able to do since then has been rewarding.
Opening the doors
Purchase has already held a small craft gathering in the barn. Visitors brought projects to work on and offered ideas for the space. Until then, she had only shown people around and talked about her plans; having them come in with their own crafts felt different.
“It confirmed a lot of the thoughts that I had about the space,” she says.
Purchase says the gathering showed her that other people could see her vision for the barn.
Neighbours have also stopped by since her first day. Purchase says some told her they had worried a buyer might demolish the barn and subdivide the property. They were glad she appreciated the building and wanted to preserve it. She says neighbours have offered to keep an eye on the place, and their welcome has helped her feel connected to the area.
“It’s nice to feel like I’m in a community,” she says.
Purchase has been sharing updates online as she works. She has experience with public speaking and worked at a Moncton radio station last summer, yet says she was surprised by how vulnerable it felt to have people following a project of her own. Knowing others were watching brought some anxiety and motivated her to keep posting and engaging with them.
“Everyone’s been nothing but supportive so far, so it’s been good,” she says.
Theodore Ramharack holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Western University and a diploma in Broadcast Journalism. He recently completed an internship with CBC News’ The National.
Originally from Ontario, he moved to Sackville to join CHMA as a local journalist and is excited to get to know the Tantramar region and share stories from the community.
