NOW LUNENBURG COUNTY_MAGAZINE_56PGS_JUNE2018
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ELLIOT WAJCHENDLER and HANNAH COOK<br />
nova scotia<br />
PINEGROVE, <strong>LUNENBURG</strong> <strong>COUNTY</strong><br />
breaking new ground BY<br />
JENNIFER NAUGLER<br />
Submitted photo<br />
FARMHOUSE RESTORATION<br />
CREATES YOUTUBE FAME<br />
Living in Toronto and having recently finished school, Hannah<br />
Cook and Elliot Wajchendler began working in their respective<br />
careers as interior designer and architect. After some time and<br />
circumstance, not feeling especially satisfied with their jobs,<br />
they eventually began talking about where their careers and<br />
lives were headed. More importantly, where they wanted to be.<br />
Hannah grew up in Lunenburg County with her parents and<br />
three siblings on a chicken farm, and was feeling the pull to<br />
come back home. Elliot was open to coming to Nova Scotia and<br />
loved the idea of living in an area with so much nature and<br />
space. After some deliberation, Hannah packed up all their<br />
things and moved to NS with Elliot joining her six months later<br />
after finishing a temporary job out west.<br />
Their original plan was to build a tiny home to live in, but<br />
until that happened they were staying in the 100+ year old<br />
farmhouse on the Cook farm property. The interior designer in<br />
Hannah and the architect in Elliot, started peeking around the<br />
old home and immediately felt inspired to start doing some<br />
restoring and renovating.<br />
They started in the living room and began recording some video,<br />
mostly for their own purposes to document the process. When<br />
they finished, Elliot spent some time editing and then decided<br />
to upload the video, entitled Farmhouse Restoration- $300<br />
Living Room Reno, to YouTube and Reddit. Within 24 hours, they<br />
had received 800 subscribers. At the one-year mark, that first<br />
video now has over 400,000 views.<br />
Receiving so much positive feedback, they decided to keep<br />
going and began dedicating more time to the video process.<br />
Renovating the farmhouse, and sharing that experience, they<br />
have built up a large following. They currently have close to<br />
60,000 subscribers and 2.4 million total video views. With the<br />
money they make from ad revenue, Elliot is now a full-time<br />
YouTuber, while Hannah has a full-time job and her own cake<br />
decorating business on the side.<br />
Leaving Lunenburg County for a while and coming back has<br />
given Hannah a whole new respect for the area. When you are<br />
young, it’s easy to say there is nothing to do here, but Hannah<br />
says if you go looking, there is lots to do, mentioning the<br />
beautiful trails and recent addition of craft breweries. Blown<br />
away by the space, nature, and the convenience, the longer Elliot<br />
is in Pinegrove, the more he loves it. They both enjoy the slower<br />
paced lifestyle and the sense of community.<br />
Elliot describes these times as “ground-breaking” in that there<br />
is so much potential online. There is still work to do, but you can<br />
really do that work from anywhere. Hannah and Elliot are both<br />
glad this new reality allows them to build their lives, living and<br />
working in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.<br />
YouTube- Wabi Sabi-E- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe34EfG32ae981lvYBKpgdg/featured<br />
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/wabisab_e/<br />
Hannah’s Cake Designs- https://www.facebook.com/hannahscakedesigns/<br />
4 <strong>NOW</strong><strong>LUNENBURG</strong><strong>COUNTY</strong>.COM
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