Tucked away in a remote townsite in B.C.'s southern interior is the mansion of a well-known artist.
He's just not famous in Canada.
Charles John Collings, born in 1848, was an English artist who moved to Canada in his later years. Known for his watercolours, his work sold well in his time but mostly in England; nowadays his finished pieces fetch between $1,000 and $10,000 at auctions, while sketches get up to $500.
In 1910, Collings ended up in the Shuswap and had a house constructed at Seymour Arm, a community on Shuswap Lake.
While Seymour Arm is considered remote by today's standards, since it's a long distance from any highway, the lake provides easy transportation to anyone with a boat, meaning travel to places like Salmon Arm, Sicamous, and Chase is possible. The area has a year-round population which increases during the summer.
Collings' main house was finished in 1914 in the Tudor style, two additional buildings were added to the property later. At one point one was turned into a small dinosaur museum.
Now it's on the market (not including the dinosaur relics), and it's selling for $1.5 million, the same as a cheap house in the city of Vancouver.
The house has been renovated with some modern amenities but still looks the part of a house built during WWI, including a huge round fireplace in the middle of the main family room. That said, it's also hooked up to solar power.
There's also a huge antique slate pool table and a grand piano; while those might be more common in Vancouver, in a rural house it's a bit more unusual.
