Week 13 of 2025’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is “Home Sweet Home.”
The Meloche family was astonished when they learned that Phil was building Connie a house of her very own! Most people in the busy city of Montreal, including their own large family, rented apartments. Home ownership was considered an unobtainable luxury, yet after the honeymoon, 22-year-old Connie and her husband Phil were moving into a brand new home right next door to the house where Phil was born in Westbrook, Maine.
Phil began building the home at 79 Chestnut Street in November of 1948, a month before he proposed. He must have felt fairly confident Connie was going to say yes! He paid his father William a nominal fee for the lot and the two Laviolette men set out to build Phil’s dream home -- a one-story western-style ranch with a flat roof and a half cellar – quite modern for the time and a departure from the abundant cape-style homes in the area. He clipped an inspiration picture from a newspaper advertisement.
Phil and William did most of the labor themselves. The base of the house was reconfigured from his Grandma Georgie’s old 3-bay garage, which saved Phil quite a bit of time and money. They hustled to complete the project in seven months, barely finishing it in time for the wedding. The cozy home included one bathroom, a combination kitchen and dinette, two bedrooms, and a bright sun parlor off the back of the living room. The exterior was finished with Webtex mastic siding which mimicked the look of gray stone. Phil kept every receipt and a detailed list of expenses. In total, he spent $5,811.58 on materials (including some early additions to the home), as well as fruit trees, bushes, and fill.
Connie immediately fell in love with her little home, which felt spacious compared to the city apartment she shared with her family of thirteen. Adjusting to “country living” was a bit of a challenge for the young, urban bride. In 1996, my grandparents shared this story with me about Nana’s first impressions of nightlife in Westbrook.
“When she first got here after we were married, she’d look out the window to see if there was any lights in the other houses ‘bout 9:00, and if she’d see a light, she was amazed! ‘There’s a light over there, Phil! There’s a light!’” Grampy Phil recounted with a mixture of affection and amusement in his voice.
Nana Connie, always animated, explained, “In Montreal we used to come home from work at 6:30. Mum would have the dining room table set up. We’d have our dinner then we’d go out to the movies until 9:00 or 9:30. Sometimes we’d go to what they’d call two movies together—a double feature – at the Lowell State Theater or the York Theater in Montreal and then we’d get out of the movies maybe 11:30 or 12:00. Then we’d go out and eat after that, so we never got home before 2:00 or 2:30 in the morning. I got over here and the first night, he’s getting into bed about 8:00, and I said, ‘What’s he doing?’ I looked outside and all the lights are going off, one by one in the houses around us. I said, ‘Something’s wrong!’ So I said, ‘Phil, what are they doing?’ He said, ‘People are going to bed,’ and I said, ‘What? Are they crazy? They’re going to bed at 8:00 at night?’ I was used to the nightlife, so it was kind of hard for me to get accustomed to that.”
Before long, a quiet home and early nights were a thing of the past as Connie and Phil began to fill their home with children. By 1953, the two-bedroom home was bursting at the seams, prompting Phil to add an additional two bedrooms next to the sun parlor. A larger addition was completed in 1961, but that’s another story for another day.
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