DAWSON CITY The living room at Berton House will comfortably hold about a dozen people.

This capacity has been tested at a number of writers' gatherings over the last 10 years and found to vary only slightly, depending on what furniture is in the room.

So it's safe to say that crowding 42 people into the room at one time left very little room for them to do much besides avoid each other's feet, especially since all of them were wearing -15∞C outdoor wear at the time.

People had come and gone between the originally announced time of 4 p.m. and the actual opening time, which was closer to 5:45.

There were eventually 50 to 60 folk in attendance for 'the reveal' of the building's four-day interior makeover by Home and Garden Television's Designer Guys, but some of the first comers actually had to leave before others could get in.

Berton House is what you'd have to call cozy. There's a small front entrance porch off Harper Street which leads into the living room.

Off to the left, what was a second bedroom has now been redesigned as a study. Past the dividing arch in the living room, in the area that might once have been a dining room, but has been been the writer's workroom for the last decade, there is now a large entertainment centre, and an L-shaped couch for relaxing while watching the new television.

It's in the kitchen that the biggest changes have taken place. The other rooms have new paint jobs, insulating blinds and carpeting, but the kitchen was completely redone: new cabinets and appliances, table and chairs, microwave, stove the works.

As for the building itself, the changes aren't visible, but it was levelled and insulated beneath the crawl space which, with the carpets, should make the floors a good deal warmer.

All of this was on display for the crowd of locals, who coincidentally became part of the Designer Guys' most northerly show ever, a program which should be telecast near the end of their HGTV schedule, sometime in the spring of 2007.

Berton House opened as a writers' retreat in the summer of 1996. It's operated by the Berton House Writer's Retreat Society (a subcommittee of the Yukon Arts Council), with financial backing from the Canada Council and the Klondike Visitors Association.

Local assistance with scheduling, hospitality and orientation for the visiting writers is handled by the Dawson Community Library through its board members and other interested parties.

The legendary author died Nov. 30, 2004.

While at first a seasonal operation, Berton House eventually became a year-round retreat, housing four writers yearly and inspiring the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture's artist-in-residence program as well as the Ted Harrison artist's retreat at Crag Lake, south of Whitehorse.

Program residents have few commitments outside of doing their actual work, other than having public readings in both Dawson City and Whitehorse some time during their stay. A number have also offered writing workshops through Yukon College, or simply met with local writers.

Operating as cheaply as possible, the house has been furnished and appointed up to now mostly with donations from businesses and locals' second-hand furniture and appliances.

The van loads of material brought in for the show were almost more than could be squeezed into the house.

There were a number of things (picture frames, vases, and other small items) that were left over once the Guys had finished organizing the place, and these were given away as door prizes at the opening.

Much of the old furniture from the house will be donated to the local women's shelter. Some items will be auctioned off to help raise money to support Berton House.

The general consensus of the crowd was the Guys have done a splendid job and that almost everything was a great improvement over what the place had looked like before they arrived.

There was also some amazement over the fact that they'd been able to get it all done between Tuesday and Saturday of last week.