Fort Smith (July 12/04) - The oldest house in Fort Smith was torn down late last month. And its owner, Maggie Kurszewski, cannot be happier. She'll soon have a new home.

"I feel better, but I'm still disappointed that it took so long," she says.

The Metis elder says she first asked the NWT Housing Corporation for a new home about 11 years ago after her husband died.

The corporation finally agreed last year to build the house.

Kurszewski expects her new home -- a $130,000 bungalow with disability access features such as wide doors -- will be ready sometime later this year. It will be built where the old house stood.

"I'm anxious to have it done and move in there," she says.

Her old log house was built about 100 years ago. She lived in the house since 1952.

"I had kind of mixed feelings when they first started taking it down," she says.

However, she adds she is ready to live in comfort.

She recites a list of problems with the old house, everything from being too cold in the winter, to mould, to sockets falling out of the walls.

"It was no good anymore," she says.

At one point in 2002, Kurszewski became so frustrated with the Housing Corporation that she launched her own fundraising effort, asking people to donate a loonie each. She netted $210.