Sherman Hines walks into his historic house in Nova Scotia. (CBC.com)Photographer Sherman Hines purchased his Nova Scotia home for just CA$15,000 in 1982. Now, he and his wife are selling the restored 7-room home for CA$2 million. And he'd prefer you turn it into a museum.
But it's not a case of ego run wild. In truth, the home itself is a piece of history. Hines discovered that the home was one of the oldest in Canada, having been built in 1699 by French missionaries.
"As far as I can find in any research I have done, it is the oldest building east of Quebec City," Hines told the CBC.
When Hines first toured the 300-year-old house, he found it in disarray.
"We drove up and I crawled around in this basement, it was full of mud and debris," he said. "I was doing kind of a duck walk around, I couldn't stand up, and I fell in love with it."
After researching through historical maps, Hines realized the building had once been used by the French as a fortified church to protect them against British military forces. In the 30 years since purchasing the building, Hines has restored it to its former conditions and even used as much period furniture as possible.
"Part of my fun is saving the buildings, the other part is finding the materials to fix them up with," Hines said.
But now that the Hines children have grown up, he and his wife are planning on moving to smaller quarters.
"It was mainly a place for the children," he said. "It's a wonderful place for children to grow up, and now there are just two of us ... and we use three rooms."