Mary Ann Harris and Charles de Lint's Country Cottage-Bus

Over at the Facebook group for Domythic Bliss, there was a recent discussion about the fact that all the locations I've featured so far have been brick and mortar homes. I assured them, and assure you, I do have plans to do posts on the incredible romance of moving homes such as Vardos, housetrucks, buses, and boats.

I received a message from Mary Ann Harris, the lovely wife, "first editor, business manager, and creative consort" of Mythic Fiction author Charles de Lint. She is also a wonderfully talented musician and artist. See more of her work here!

She thought, and I definitely agree, that we would enjoy seeing the beautifully quirky and cozy romantic cabin they used as a country cottage. The location is phenomenal, truly. But the house itself is charming too, created as it was from a cabin and a bus melded together into one space!

I'll let Mary Ann describe the place herself...

For 17 years, Charles and I had this funny 1950s bus/shack as our country "cottage" in the wilds of Quebec. Sadly, it deteriorated over time, but we loved it for all that time.

It was already a bus + cabin when we bought it. It was horrendous ... The family who put it there had somehow cut off the front of the bus, and left the under-carriage, which provided a partial support (footing) for the pressboard shack. The bus was yellow and it still had the bus seats as furniture and the pressboard ktichen was painted brown and it was just nasty. But we painted the exterior green, put pine tongue & groove on the kitchen walls and I sewed little cottagey curtains with floral fabrics and vintage drapes.

We could have done far more, but it was just a funny little place we used during the summer months and we didn't have extra money to spend on it. All furnishings were garage sale items. Anyway, it certainly had its charms and I cried like a baby when we had it hauled away (just two years ago).

We now have a real building there. We kept our old Moffatt stove as a decoration in the new place.


I'm a sucker for a good fence with cottage flowers spilling out around:


The view from the front porch:


Bus and shack meet, fall in love, and never part again:


What a front yard!


What a view!


The bus portion of the cottage. The "furniture" used to all be made from bus seats:


Looking toward the bus portion:

Cozy kitchen space:



The snug bedroom with a door that says "porte d'urgence"


The cottage was located near the white dot on the far end of the lake in this picture:


Kitchen window view: