Gingerbread circle

They’re like a scene from Alice in Wonderland, or The Wizard of Oz. But a group of homes in Grimsby are the “real deal”. We speak to a couple of residents who have turned their 130 year old cottages into life sized “gingerbread style homes.

For Linda Andrews, it was love at first sight: “It was exactly what I was looking for. It was cute, and I just fell in love with it.”

Linda’s relatively new to this colourful neighborhood. She’s lived in this gingerbread cottage for four years.

“When I bought it, it was yellow and a flat turqoise colour, so I’ve painted every square inch of the house, and made it mine.”

And more than a dozen of her neighbors have done the same thing like June Vansickle: “We’re in our own little world here, everybody is close knit, it’s beautiful.”

Some of these cottages were built in the 1850’s, and originally had the “gingerbread” type designs…these residents are just returning them to their former glory.

June said: “My neighbour did his in orange, looks like a manly cottage so I decided to make mine a feminine cottage, and I’m not normally a pink person.”

These homes on auditorium circle, and a few others on fair avenue have attracted people from all over…judy portz’s brother is visiting from australia.

Judy Portz: “They’re fantastic, it’s a site, a local attraction.”

Bob Colbeck: “It’s amazing, they’re beautiful, they really do set off the neigborhood for sure.”

Residents here are used to the attention; in fact, they welcome it.

Linda said: “Some people may get tired of the tourists, but I love it, I think it’s great.”

June Vansickle has spent less than ten-thousand dollars decorating her cottage. But she says sitting on the porch in the morning is priceless.