By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: Dec.8, 2012
When Kim Fairall and her partner bought a house on Sixth Ave, they were unfazed by whatever reputation the street carried.
They found the house they were looking for, and that is what mattered.
“We wouldn’t care for what people thought of Sixth Ave or downtown Squamish,” she said.
But within weeks of moving, she couldn’t help but notice the yellow house for sale next to her.
She also noticed a few young couples coming to see the house, but the house didn’t sell. In 2010, it caught fire, and it was boarded up.
As the summer rolled in, the grass grew to knee length.
A house where she was expecting to greet a young family only a year ago was rapidly growing into seediness.
Kim Fairall thought of doing something.
“It looked like an invitation for people who have an interest in neglected houses,” she said.
She decided to approach the district, and make them aware of the deteriorating condition of the house.
They came back and told her that dealing with the house would be a long process.
Her best bet was to call the owners, a family that lived in Vancouver.
She called them this April, and they said they were planning to renovate and sell the house.
But it was clear this was a property they had bought and seemed to have forgotten.
“I just realised they were never going to take care of this,” she said.
Unable to see the growing grass and abandoned house, she went there one summer day with her friends and cut the grass.
It was also reflective of her growing interest in Permaculture, whose core tenets include taking care of people, of the land, and sharing the surplus.
Then, she pruned the apple trees, and managed the organised the blueberry and blackberry. The word spread around the neighbourhood.
The neighbours also joined in, helping with the backyard, taking fruit and flowers, letting their dogs and cats around the house.
She adorned the house with paintings, a bright red which gives its grimy exterior a bright, colourful look.
Fairall hopes to create a Green Map of Squamish, one in which she can identify the community gardens in Squamish.
“I feel so empowered and happy,” she said.
