Hobbit house: N.S. homeowner turns damaged bush into neighbourhood attraction

A Dartmouth mom with a love of whimsy draws neighbours in with her hobbit house.

A homeowner in Dartmouth, N.S., has turned a damaged bush on her front lawn into a popular neighbourhood attraction.

Gardening is one of Niki Hanlin’s favourite things to do, but there were few flowers or shrubs when she first moved into her home eight years ago.

Luckily there was a large cedar bush on the corner of her lot.

“That was one of the only things on the property, which I’ve been told by my neighbour has been here since the ‘70s, so it’s a very old bush,” she told CTV Atlantic’s Paul DeWitt.

However, the bush was damaged by a snowplow this winter.

“The city was really good about it, the snowplow company was great about it, they offered to help fix it,” Hanlin said. “But how do you fix a bush?”

The mother of three then began to wonder how to make the bush look good while still keeping half of it intact.

“So we were looking at it, and the shape of how the plow kind of pushed it in, like caved it in, looked like where a hobbit house or a hobbit door would be,” she said.

“The kids play in the bush anyway. Let’s make a little fort out of it.”

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Hanlin started making the fort after the snowplow incident with things she already had laying around the house.

“I had to buy a couple of things, but we just started making it and that’s when in the spring it got warmer, we just installed it. And lately we’ve been putting in a little garden in the stepping stones and the little fun things here and there, the solar lights – the neighborhood just seems to love it,” she said.

People in the Woodlawn area have been stopping by to check out her quirky creation and even take pictures with their kids and pets.

“I think it’s amazing,” said one neighbour. “It has really brought all the kids in the neighborhood together. Niki is very creative, and every week you come out and you see something that’s been added on, so it’s really great.”

“We love it. My daughter and I are big fans, huge, fans of the whimsy, and it adds a little bit of imagination. And it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing. I hope it becomes a trend in the neighborhood,” said another.

Hanlin says she just wishes she had more property to make more hobbit houses.

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