Sask. woman wins $100K to create dream 'vintage TV' Airbnb

Melissa Williamson stands on the shores of Lac Pelletier with a sign that says "AirBnB #pickme." (Courtesy: Melissa Williamson)

A woman from Saskatchewan will be able to bring her dream Airbnb to life after winning a $100,000 prize.

Melissa Williamson, who is originally from Vanguard, Sask. and is now living in Saskatoon, entered the Airbnb OMG Fund hoping her concept would be accepted as one of the 100 winners to receive $100,000.

Williamson’s idea, a home shaped like a larger than life vintage TV perched on the shores of Lac Pelletier, was selected as one of two winners from Canada and the only winner from Saskatchewan.

"It's basically the old style that has the TV antenna on top with the background of the hills, knobs on the side, and then the big window in the front where people can actually live inside the TV and their view is the lake,” she said.

She said she will be creating a series of coffee table books that are going to look like old school TV guides which would include prompts and ideas to allow guests to put on their own productions.

“The idea is whatever you want to do. You want to do a magic show, you want to do a dance recital, you want to do a play or improv or stand up comedy, you do you,” she said. “Be creative, and you can do it inside a TV.”

Williamson said the concept is a little bit like the Globe Theatre in the sense that you can do things on the inside but the backdrop would be backlit by a view of the lake.

“Or at night, you can do it to the people around the campfire and it's all lit up inside,” she said. “You can do a show for the people on the lake or at the campfire sitting in front of the TV.”

Williamson said the idea was sparked by memories of her childhood.

“Growing up, we always did campfire skits. My aunties would gather us together and we would just end up doing all of these ridiculous skits,” she said. “We'd end up laugh crying beside the fire, and I kind of wanted to bottle that same feeling for other people.”

“This one time, I was hanging out at a friend's cabin and the kitchen light was on and he had a big picture window and we were by the campfire doing campfire things. And we just started kind of like voicing the characters inside the cabin and then we ended up doing improv shows for the people around the fire.”

Lac Pelletier is a special place for Williamson because her Nana and Grandpa’s families were some of the first to live on the shores in the northwest corner.

“They had won a grain bin in a raffle way back in the day and they moved it onto Lac Pelletier and made it into a cabin. And the two families shared that cabin and then eventually, my Nana and Grandpa married and had six kids and now we have over a dozen of us that have little places in that corner of the lake so it's really sentimental to us,” she said.

Williamson said when she heard she was one of the winners, she was ecstatic.

“I'm excited but I know that it's going to be quite a road ahead. I think a bit like an evergreen project, like it's constantly changing,” she said. “My neurons are constantly firing and I'm writing down ideas and it's going to be like that for a while but I'm excited because I'm passionate about it.”

In addition to being an out of the box concept, another requirement was for the building to be sustainable in some way.

“My TV house has more or less a flat roof. It's a little bit slanted, but I'm going to deck it out with solar panels. The plugin in the back of the TV is going to be a hose, really that plugs into this cartoonishly large plug in, but it's really going to be a drip irrigation system that's going to water the plants and flowers,” she said.

Williamson said at Lac Pelletier, they all have septic tanks and low flush toilets already so she thought it was a cool aspect to the contest.

The house will be completed in August and Williamson hopes to set up a website to document the journey of the building and give people a place to have their input.

“The TV house is going to be a special place and I'm excited to make it happen,” she said. “It feels good to shine a spotlight on Saskatchewan because I think our province has a lot to offer tourists.”

She said she hopes the TV house attracts creatives from around the world and thinks it would be great to offer artist retreats and other programming there in the future, although anyone who is interested will be able to stay there.

“Family and friends can get out there just to be creative, do silly things, take their pictures,” she said. “It's going to be like an Instagrammers dream because there's going to be these quirky little sets. It's going to be pops of color everywhere. It's going to be awesome that way.”

Williamson has done passion projects in the past, having previously transformed an old trailer into a nautical-themed ice fishing shack that she named the "sailor trailer" that her cousin enjoys every winter at Lac Pelletier. She also turned a 1970’s mobile home into a Mexican surf-themed retreat with "Sayu Vibes" after the surf town in Nayarit, Mexico.

“I'm always interested in doing stuff like that. I've had the idea to do something like this [TV house], but I never really the funding to do it,” she said. “I can't really say how long but it's always ticking in the back of my brain, like when I get the opportunity, I'm going to do this.”

Williamson said she will be getting lots of help with the project and is ready to see her dream Airbnb become a reality.

“This is going to forever change the shoreline at Lac Pelletier and it's going to make people smile and I'm just so excited,” she said. “It's going to be so great and I'm excited to highlight Lac Pelletier I'm excited to highlight Saskatchewan. I mean, it's incredible.”

Lac Pelletier is located approximately 50 kilometres south of Swift Current, Sask.