Photos by Laurie Mustard / Winnipeg Free Press
Lady Lee lounges outside her castle, a luxurious house built in the 1950s the blues musician purchased in 2003.
A bridge crosses from the main house to a patio on the roof of the garage. Below, the back courtyard and fire pit can be seen.
Two stars to talk about today. The gorgeous house you see in the background and the lovely "Lady" who owns it, none other than Lady Lee.
For those who aren’t familiar with her music career, allow me to bring you up to speed.
According to a Manitoba Live/Women in Blues promo: "Lady Lee, with her six piece blues band, Blue Noise, is currently one of the only female-driven six piece blues bands in Winnipeg. Lee has opened for great blues artist Randy McAllister, The Powder Blues Band and many more."
Not surprisingly, it doesn’t mention she’s also an accomplished stalker, which is how she acquired this house.
Eh?
Oh, not like how you stalk people — this is much different. Much the same as I stalk old cars. You see it, you know you have to have it and you stalk it till one day the deal is done and it becomes yours. It’s fate — meant to be. And oh, so satisfying.
Lee spotted this home by accident — a traffic situation forced her to take a detour. She immediately fell in love with "the castle," kept a very devoted eye on it for three years — by parking near and staring at it — and then one day, much to her surprise, spotted it in the Real Estate News.
Cut to the chase — and capture. As of May 10, 2003, it was hers and she’s been renovating ever since. This is a very unique home.
Construction began in 1950 and took three years to complete. The home was built by John Dwyn, his wife, Alida, and engineer John D’Vrent, with additional help from ‘Pegger John Major.
Dwyn had been brought in from Belgium to run the local brick-and-mortar factory located just a couple of blocks away.
Every day, at both noon and dinner, he would bring bricks home to build his and his wife’s dream home. The next morning, Alida would rise and lay the bricks.
Does it get any better than that?
Lee, with a bit of humour, tells a story that still survives from Alida’s labours high on the scaffold. At the time, a neighbour would come by, look up and, out of consideration for her hard working friend’s modesty, call up, "Madame, your pantaloons are showing!" Good heavens!
Worthy of note that the endless renovations I mentioned since Lee bought the home in 2003 have for the most part actually been done by Lee herself.
This "Lady" is no stranger to a jackhammer and she wields it with authority.
Lee says her dad was a mechanic who, "along with renovating houses, also taught me how to play guitar. I learned a lot about construction helping him." Lee is also associated with the construction industry through her day job, so it’s nothing for her to pick up a hammer and have at it.
She’s done — and continues to do — a spectacular job of renovating her "chateau," as an excited neighbour described it shortly after she purchased it.
Due to the volume of work being accomplished, it is impossible to go into detail on everything, but it might help us to understand the scope of this undertaking through Lee’s description of her approach to the project:
"I got a roll of paper that would be used in a calculator and wrote my list on it. The list was taped to the top front of my fridge and went down and out across the kitchen floor. I would have to roll it up to the fridge and clip the bottom, always ending each and every list with ‘PAINT EVERYTHING!’"
"Everything" includes the 38 arches/archways in le chateau. That alone is more painting than I ever want to do.
It is a fascinating place, though: the walls and floors are 18 inches thick, the floors have a space for pipes to run through and heat the concrete-topped surfaces and generally from room to room, the floor elevation changes — a design that Lee says was intended "to prevent ghosts from travelling throughout the home."
Hmm, an old Belgian belief perhaps?
Outside, the backyard has an ornate concrete bridge built over to a rooftop patio area on the brick two car garage and beneath the bridge (the backyard is at a lower elevation than the front), there is a beautiful walled courtyard with a fireplace to sit around.
Such an amazing home. Also very cool that Lee loves cruisin’ in the ’57 Fiat she parks in her garage.
Need I mention that Alida used to have an aviary on the top floor somewhere — a large caged area for keeping birds.
When one of the birds would die, John and Alida would carefully remove a brick from the outside wall, insert the bird and reinstall the brick.
"Just part of the charm of my ‘castle,’" Lee says. There’s so much more to tell, but I’m out of room. Thanks for the tour, my Lady!
Comments or feedback, love to hear from you!
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