Main Floor

Parlour

 

The picture rail has been installed, as well as all of the baseboard trim, and the trim around the front door. James and I painted the room last year, and I put a final coat of paint on the trim the day before we left. Since then, Dad has touched up the wall paint. This room is finished except for the two light fixtures for over the mantle.

Old Dan Munn is hanging by the picture rope. I had this picture in Nebraska, and David sent it to me for my birthday last year, when I was here without him. I got the frame at a yard sale, and Viola sent me the picture of Dan. It was about 2x3 inches, so I had a new negative made and blown up for the frame. That was 31 years ago.

I got this print from Gallery 18 in New London about 7 years ago. It was rolled up in a tube until this summer when I had it framed at Michaels in Charlottetown. Its page 159 of the 1880 Meacham's Atlas of Prince Edward Island. The original atlas printing was in colour, and this is a page from the original printing.  

 

I found the atlas online here: http://www.islandimagined.ca/meachams_atlas

We hung the PEI heritage award with the photo of Mom and Dad receiving it from the Lieutenant Governor at the front door.

Dining Room

 

All of the trim was installed in the Dining Room as well. Dad has since painted it all a second time since I left, so this room is completely finished.

I've had this sideboard since 1989 when I was an architecture student. Its originally from the Island. It was painted purple when I first got it and I refinished it in 1992.

Butler's Pantry

The Butler's Pantry is finished as well.

I did the charcoal sketch while sitting at the dining room table in this room back in 1983. I remember when I finished it I showed it to Grampy. He was smiling ear to ear and we put it in a frame and hung it in this spot. It's from a photo of Grammy's childhood home in Abney.

The china cabinet that George built is permanently attached now in the corner where the Dan Munn sideboard used to be when this was the dining room.

Kitchen

 

Nothing left to do in the kitchen except add the LED rope lighting inside the pantry closet.

I wanted to check how well the lighting would work and had LED rope lighting added above the kitchen shelves first. It looks great, so the next time I have an electrician out, I'll have the lighting installed in the pantry closet.

The first thing I did when I got home this time was to hang the canvas of the family group at the house in the summer of 1977.

This is the image. Turns out its a great conversation piece!

...and the Dan Munn sideboard, the only piece of furniture to survive the fire at Ira's house in Hopefield in 1940.

 

Below is a picture of Ira's house. I borrowed from Winnie this snapshot of the house that Uncle Danny kept in his pocket when he was serving overseas during World War II. I had a negative made and my own copy, and gave the original back to Winnie. That was probably over 30 years ago too. The original was in rough shape and had some folds in it. The upper left hand corner was gone. This all from traveling through Europe in Uncle Danny's pocket.

Back Hall

Not much left to do to the Back Hall. I need to get the three light sconces for the north wall.

The laundry chute will get a cushion so you can sit there and look out the window.

The railing is now finished

The windows need trim and the chair rail needs to go on. That will likely happen in the spring.

Dad's beer stein collection looks great on the back hall shelf.

Bathroom

 

Since I've been back, Dad has painted all of the trim in the bathroom again. This room is complete.

Front Porch

The front porch is finished as well except for one detail. Dad has the old wood box in pieces and we are going to put it back together, use some other old wood for a lid, and make it into the garbage and recycle bin.

We have come a long way this year. Pretty minor stuff left to do.

Basement in a following post

Interior, Second Floor

These are photos I took of the interior the same day. I'll explain as I go.

The hall was drywalled just before we got there this summer, and was bare gypsum board. The trim had also been installed. Dad had cleaned, scraped, primed and put the first coat of paint on the trim before it went back up. The Monday after we arrived the electrician came and spent most of a day installing all of the lights, fans and plug-ins on the second floor. This light fixture is a Moravian Star, the same fixture that is at the front door, and the landing at the basement stair.

 

David painted the walls with Farrows Cream, the same colour that is in the dining room. When I got the dining room paint, I got 2 gallons, and we only needed one so I figured it would brighten up this space that has no direct natural light.

The mounted print on the wall is called Point Prim, a reproduction of a painting by Richard Vickerson, a PEI artist who sells his work at Details Past and Present in Charlottetown. I picked it up the day David and I were in Town. We visit the gallery every summer, and I have bought three paintings from there in the past. 2 were by Vickerson, and a third of Murray Harbour by Robert Harris.  

 

This is the website for the gallery: Details Past and Present

The old railing is just about the only thing in the house that  is original and hasn't moved. Dad is now refinishing it in place, and when that is done, he plans on painting the floor and stairs. It will be Railings, the same colour as the basement stairs. The risers will be the same colour as the trim, Blackened, the white colour that replicates a little bit of kerosene lamp dust in it. I like the treads and risers to be completely different colours so they are easy to see and safer to climb.

Once the painting was done, Dad installed the original red glass window. It looks fantastic, and says to me that the house is done (nearly).  It was one of the first things that Dad and my cousin Michael took out of the house before all of this began. It was carefully packed and waited over 4 years to go back where it belongs. It looks great with the yellow walls!

David also painted our room, the bedroom at the back. The colour is Olive, my favourite colour. We ran out of trim when the work was being done, so this room has no trim yet. In the spring I'll get more trim and have it installed so that will all be finished when I get there the next time. I'll paint the floor when I'm back. I have the paint there already, called Cornforth White, a creamy off-white that will keep the room bright.

David schlepped the painting in his luggage from Nebraska, and we took it in to Michaels in Charlottetown to have it custom framed. David's Aunt Bev painted it. She used to show in galleries here in Nebraska. She passed away a couple of years ago.   

No trim, but the cedar walls in the closet are done. We put up some rods and hook. We brought 2 suitcases with us to the Island and went home with one. We left a lot of clothes there so we don't have to carry so much back and forth, now that our room is practically finished and we have a place to leave our stuff.   

No door yet either. Dad refinished the door for this opening, but when the carpenter tried to install it, it was too small for the opening. Even though Dad and Michael did a great job labeling all the doors when they were taken out, so they could be put back where they came from, somehow they got mixed up. I think the door to this room is now between the parlour and the butlers pantry. The frame there was modified to fit the door so we can't just switch them out. The next time we have a carpenter there, he will block the opening to make it a little narrower so the door will fit.   

David got the bedspread and hooked rug on the right at an antique store just north of Montague. I got the cable rug at Stewart and Beck's furniture store. The lamp was made by Grampy, and I got a new shade for it. Dad rewired it.  

 Both bedrooms have ceiling fans as well now

I painted the front bedroom with a colour called Lamp Room Gray. It is a very light blue-gray colour but looks very dark in the photos.

Right after we left, Mom and Dad painted the floor in this room. I haven't seen what that looks like yet, but it is now Cornforth White, the creamy off-white that I will put in the back bedroom.

The big closet in this room has also been lined with cedar. The old bedsteads are stacked in there. The bed rails are too short for modern mattresses, so I'm going to have to figure out how to make them work. Might have to have the rails cut and have a piece welded into the middle to lengthen them. Anybody know somebody who can do this?

One of my old trunks in the closet. I got this at an auction, for free, because no one wanted it, at Edgar Munn's home in Belle River.

 

Edgar was the son of John Danny Munn, who was a brother of Elizabeth Ann Munn, the mother of Ira, and grandmother of Grampy. Edgar was Ira's first cousin to put it another way, but he was just a year older than Grampy. Edgar owned a store in Belle River and the building is still there, although boarded up. The auction was at the store.

 

Anyway, the auction was about 1986 I believe and Edgar had just moved into a nursing home in Belfast. I remember being there, saying to Lois that I really liked the trunks. A woman, I think her name was Rafuse, who at the time owned Dr. Bonnell's house at the River and ran it as a Bed and Breakfast, bid $5 for a blue trunk plus 4 others, and got them. Lois asked her about the trunks, and she only wanted the blue one, so Lois got her to give me the other 4. I got them home and found inside a name stamped in this one, Neil A. Munn. There are a lot of Neil's in the family, Edgar had a brother Neil, but in my records, only one had the middle initial A, for Alexander. Neil A was an older brother to John Danny, Edgar's father. Neil was born in 1867 (I was born in 1967) and he died at the age of 21.

The parents in the photo are Hector (c. 1827 - 21 April 1876, age 49) and Sarah (Munn) Munn (c. 1833 - 15 December 1882, age 49). They had 15 children but only 9 lived.

 

Below are the children in the photo:

 

Duncan Hector Munn (25 June 1853 - 23 October 1876, age 23)

Elizabeth Ann Munn (26 November 1854 - 16 May 1927, age 72)

Mary Sarah Munn (9 February 1857 - 8 November 1935, age 78)

Flora Grace Munn (25 December 1858 - 25 September 1945, age 86)

Dorothea Jane Munn (26 November 1861 - 24 February 1949, age 87)

James Hector Munn (26 July 1864 - 25 May 1926, age 61)

Jessie Euphemia Munn (24 May 1865 - 15 June 1890, age 25)

 

Sarah and Hector had 2 more children after the above photo was taken:

 

Neil Alexander Munn (6 April 1867 - 22 March 1889, age 21, the guy with the trunk)

John Daniel Munn (26 November 1868 - 17 April 1939, age 70, Edgar's father)

 

I do know Neil is buried in the Wood Island Pioneer Cemetery but why did Neil die at such a young age? Why did he have a travel trunk? Did he go anywhere? I don't know. I keep my Lego in it.