Our Story

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In 1981 Eric Allen of Amherst, Nova Scotia opened A-2 Chimney Sweeps and probably would never have believed where it would go. Eric was a truck driver and decided there was a need in Amherst for a chimney sweep. He ran it as a part time business on weekends when he was not on the road driving truck for J.W Baughn Trucking in Sackville, N.B. He originally had a business partner who after a year said it was not for him. With this on his plate he was on the lookout for a helper and his daughter Diane had a boyfriend who was the perfect fit. Greg McMasters became Eric’s main helper, doing all the climbing and  dirty work from then on.

 As time went on Greg and Diane had their first child, Matthew, in 1983, followed by their second child, Vanessa, in 1986. In the process they had gotten married in 1985 making Greg now part of the family. Once Matthew, Eric’s grandson was old enough to work, Eric put him to work with a small lawn mowing business and eventually started to integrate him into the family business by carrying tools and helping out with A-2 Chimney Sweeps. In 1997 Greg and Diane’s third child Nicholas was born. With the passing of Eric on June 18th 1999 the family was hit with a huge loss and left not knowing where to go from there. A-2 was passed down to Eric’s right hand man, Greg McMasters. Greg and Diane were both working as managers at Blue Mist Pewter in Springhill, Nova Scotia. Greg also started part time with A-2 on weekends as Eric had done, only now his partner was ready to go, his son Matthew starting helping out. In 2002 Matthew graduated high school and joined the Navy shortly after. Greg had to go looking for another helper.

That same year Greg and Diane’s daughter Vanessa ran into Keith Hunter who ended up being her high school sweetheart, it couldn’t have been better timing. Keith ended up being Greg’s new helper. In 2003 the family took another hit, the company Greg and Diane worked for, Blue Mist Pewter,  had closed its doors, which in the end was almost a blessing. Diane got divine inspiration to open a full service dealer in 2003, at the time the government had grants for female entrepreneurs and she took advantage. On the day of June 6th 2003 the first showroom of Vintage Stove and Fireplace opened at 4 Robert Angus Dr. Amherst. Only 667 sq. /ft. in size, it was quickly out grown. In October 2005 Vintage moved to their Amherst location at 25 Newton Ave. The following year, 2006, Diane was awarded with business of the year from the Amherst and Area Chamber of Commerce after only being in business for herself for 3 years.

In 2007, Diane’s son Matthew released out of the Navy to join back up with the Vintage team to open their Truro location. Both Matt and Keith moved to Truro to get the location going. The Truro location opened its doors on June 12th 2007 at the corner of Pictou Rd and Main in Bible Hill. Again the location was quickly outgrown. In February 2009 a new location was opened at 1234 Hwy 2 in Hilden Nova Scotia. The growing demand for the services offered by Vintage along with the product lines that were becoming becoming available prompted the opening of the New Glasgow location on August 11th 2014. Vintage was now covering all of Northern Nova Scotia. In 2015 Vintage sold their building in the Amherst location and closed their New Glasgow location to operate solely out of the Truro location. The managerial aspect and the amount of servicing needed by Vintage, the decision was then made to go to one location in the Truro area and serving all of northern Nova Scotia and Southern New Brunswick.

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