The Maple Creek Armoury's kitchen is undergoing a big renovation for the first time in about 50 years.

The building was built back in 1914 to train soldiers during the first world war, but after it's days of war were over the town turned it into a community hall.

Korey Pinkerton is the parks, recreation, and facility manager for the Town of Maple Creek and said the hall is one of the most important buildings in the town.

"It's pretty much one of the social hubs of our town. It's the main hall" he said. "I mean it's one of the nicest halls we have for weddings, and it hosts at least 50 events a year, especially in the summertime almost every weekend there's something going on. We also have the daycare in that building as well, so it's quite used," he said. "The kitchen was dated so what we're doing here is we are upgrading and renewing, and so far it looks fantastic."

Pinkerton said that they stripped the kitchen down to the bricks and redid almost everything.

"This one is going to have a dishwasher where the old one didn't; I think that's the biggest change. Our prep table is now stainless steel instead of normal countertops; it's a lot more spacious as some unnecessary walls were torn down. We have the new industrial sinks. We are redoing all the cupboards, the ceiling, and we have brand new appliances in their, brand new flooring as well," he said. "Once it's redone, and it's going to be modern, and hopefully, it will last for another 100 years."

Pinkerton says that the reasons for the renovations were not just because the kitchen was outdated but because the kitchen couldn't keep up with the needs of the people using it.

"It just wasn't sufficient for the needs anymore," he said. "It was too dated, it was too old, the floor was sagging, and the appliances were dated, and it just needed a little love."

The estimated the cost of the remodels is $120,000. The town along with some grants will be paying for the new and improved kitchen.

He says that the town started getting serious about the building seven years ago, and has slowly been upgrading and renewing the building and that the kitchen upgrade is just one of many steps.

"This is step two," he said. "The first one was the HVAC system, so there's a new heating and air conditioning, and now the kitchen is being done. Further done the road we will have to do the main area of flooring, we will have to do some sound suppression and things like that, so it's a process."

Pinkerton says that the completion date is on the horizon.

"They started early December, and they should be done completely done end of next week, maybe by early family day week," he said. "We've had a couple of hiccups along the way that has pushed the finish date back a bit, but it's going to be fantastic, it looks great already, and everybody that has seen it is excited about it."

Pinkerton noted that some of the hiccups they had were due to the cold weather that the southwest has received this year.

Pinkerton said that they decided to renovate the building during this time of year because it's not busy and they wanted to get it done before spring.

"The winter is a slow time; the winter has maybe a few banquets maybe a few shows, compared to the summertime its wedding and dances. The winter time is the slowest time and was the best time for us to do it without mucking it up too much."

Pinkerton added that the community is very excited to see finished the product.