Five workshops, 54 women and a little over a year of work.

The Victoria Faulkner Women's Centre has unveiled its extreme home makeover.

'This is just fantastic. The changes in this place, the difference is just like night and day,' Yukon MP Larry Bagnell said Tuesday afternoon as he reviewed the renovation work done on the centre.

The improvements began July 1, 2005 and took the unique approach of providing trades workshops to women as a way of getting the repairs done.

'The centre was looking really, really tired. It needed not just to be freshened up, but to be blustered up too,' Cynthia Kearns, the centre's program co-ordinator, told the Star.

'I watched (popular TV show) Extreme Makeover and thought, Why don't we just do something like that?' and away we went.'

The workshops were each open to six to eight women. The women didn't need any experience in the trade and the positions were filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

The spots filled quickly, to the point waiting lists are already forming for future workshops in other women's homes, said Betty Irwin, president of Yukon Women in Trades and Technology.

'I just think it's a very creative, innovative approach to women in trades and achieving such a great makeover,' said Elaine Taylor, Minister responsible for the Women's Directorate.

The participants learned tiling, plumbing, carpentry, electrical work and flooring.

The renovations, which were provided for through a grant from the Community Development Fund, saw the centre get a kitchen with new countertops, tiling and cupboards; laminated flooring throughout the building; new windows and dressings; lighting and electrical work throughout the building; a new office and bathroom; and picnic tables and a recycling centre in the back.

'Doing it in a real live situation, in a real house, in a real facility means so much more,' said Irwin. 'It's also that you can then take those skills back into your own homes or apartments or whatever and put them to use.'

Some of the projects ended up taking significantly longer than anticipated, said Irwin, especially the counter top extension in the kitchen.

'Renovations in a house never quite go as planned,' she said. 'You never know what you're getting into until you get started. But it's a great learning experience.'

The centre aims to serve and support women in a safe and inclusive atmosphere. Such work is essential to the territory, said Premier Dennis Fentie, who also attended the event.

'We see NGOs, such as this, as the perfect vehicle to advance and improve our ability to improve the lives of Yukon women, because you're front-line people. You are the people who are engaged in the most important way in trying to address those challenges and come up with the necessary solutions to them.'

The project was understated in its simplicity, said Economic Development Minister Jim Kenyon. The centre just asked for funding for renovations.

The outcome has been much more, he said.

'It's not just something that was accomplished, but boy, was it accomplished well,' he said. 'It's something that now gives us some infrastructure to continue.'

The renovations provided a needed bluster to the centre, said Kearns, but also was empowering for the women involved.

'The experience they had when they were here was huge, immeasurable actually, because you're working as part of the team and you're working with tools,' she said.

'We're given to believe that there are some things that are solely for men, men's domain, but it just indicates to many of us that we can do anything that we want to.'