Other Projects and Purchases

I lined up an electrician to arrive the day after we got there. He showed up in the afternoon and got some more lights hooked up.

 

Previously the three sconces in the back hall were just bare light bulbs sticking out of the wall, see below, a photo from last May.

Now these bronze and brass fixtures with milk-glass shades are in place.

The night before the electrician came, as we were driving from the bridge where Mom and Dad picked us up, after Jim drove us from Moncton airport to the bridge, we stopped at the Home Depot in Charlottetown to get some LED rope light for the kitchen pantry. The wiring was already there, just need to be hooked up. In my haste to pick something up I got LED rope light that is in several colors, and you can program flashing and fades, so I now call this the disco closet.

The stair lights to light up the steps have been in place for a year, but we didn't have the transformer to make them work, so we got that hooked up. They work really well and we keep these on all night when there is anybody sleeping upstairs.

The lighting project below didn't require the electrician. I had this electric floor lamp since the late 80s, and I just put candles in it as the wiring was rotted away. Dad restored the lamp, and rewired it, so I got these lamp shades and the big LED bulb for the center, and its in our bedroom.

Before we got there Dad restored the old wood box for the kitchen porch. It was in rough shape and in pieces, but Dad got it back together, and made a top out of salvaged boards from the garage door. Lift the lid and the recyclable bin is there. It also serves as a bench for putting on your shoes. I'm not going to refinish or paint it, just going to leave it as is.  

Modern double mattresses are 2 inches longer than they were when the old bed frames were made. Therefore, we haven't been able to set up the old beds. However, I found a welder who cut the rails on this bed and added 3 inches (1 extra inch for stuffing the sheets down the ends), so now we can use this frame again!

 

Dad stripped all of the many layers of paint off the frames about 10 years ago. They were meant to be painted though, and the iron was starting to rust, so I primed and painted this frame.

The finish is metal spray-paint in oil rubbed bronze. It has a really nice finish. Dad had also polished the brass bed knobs and they look great against the dark colour of the frame.

The south wall of the back hall was originally an exterior wall, and has the only original cedar shingles left in the building. The wall is painted a yellow with white trim, the colour scheme that the house had when I was small. I carried with me on the plane this antique picture frame that I've had for about 25 years, with its original red velvet matte, and I had a photo of the house as it looked when  I was small printed for it. The glass was missing, so I had the glass replaced with UV protected glass at Michaels in Charlottetown. I hung it on the shingle wall, so you can see how the house looked, on original shingles in the same colour as in the photo.

Below is the photo in the frame. The print was made form a slide that my grandfather took, and I think it was taken about 1965.

Dad had a painting I did 15 years ago hanging in an old frame in the mechanical room, so I also took it to Michaels and had it custom framed. It now hangs in the dining room.

The painting is of Main Street in Springhill, and the church on the left side is the one Mom and Dad were married in.

David and I walked down the trail to the village one morning and passed a yard sale. This little table and chair set was for sale so I picked them up for the new deck. We cleaned off most of the old paint which was flaking and falling off, and Dad plans on cleaning off the rest over the winter. Next time I am there I'll spray-paint them, likely the same colour that I used on the bed frame.

I needed a side table, and a mirror in our room. David and I found this dresser in a shop in Point Prim.

 Its missing one knob, and the mirror, but I'll get those parts next time I'm home. I like that its very similar to the bedroom set that used to be in the downstairs bedroom, and is now in Mom and Dad's room.

Lots of little details were taken care of this trip. We were again busy every day, but the house is starting to feel really finished.

New Deck

Last summer James and I built the deck at the kitchen door. I designed it as a kit, we picked up the materials and put it together in 2 days. That worked pretty well, so I designed the deck at the back door a few days before this trip.

This is what the stoop at the back door looked like before the work began.

I ordered the materials from Kent Building Supply in Montague on Thursday, the day after we arrived, and had it delivered the day after that. Saturday morning Dad and I got to work.

Its a floating deck, 8x12. The concrete supports distribute the weight.

I spaced out the decking to make sure the frame was the right width.



We built 3 frames, each 8x4, and connected them together. This was to make construction simple. the only tools we used was a circular saw, 2 electric screwdrivers and a hammer.

It took a lot of excavation. The ground was high there relative to the house, so we took out a lot of dirt and extended the downspout at the south corner to get water away from the foundation.

 We reused the steps that were at the back door. This is temporary.

Next year we will build another deck that will run across the back of the house and connect to this deck, and we will build better steps to the ground at that time.

I found this metal table and chairs at a yard sale. Dad will scrape off the old paint over the winter and I'll spray paint them when I'm back next spring.

Another project completed!

October on the Island

We just got back last night from 2 weeks on the Island. We got a lot done including a lot of work on the landscape, building the back deck, and it was exciting to witness the election!

 

As always, I walked around the place on the first morning, taking stock, and shooting some photographs.

Dad recently completed restoring the wheel barrow. We think it might have been Georges and might have come from the house, or from Hopefield. Dad had to rebuild the sides, and painted it the same colour that is has always been. Its too nice to use!

Call this a "before" photo. Later this day I ordered all of the wood, screws and nails for the new deck which was delivered the following day.

Day 2, we went to Charlottetown. Province House is now being restored and will be closed to the public for a few years.

I read in the Island Magazine an article on the 250 year old Samuel Holland map, the first accurate map of the Island, and the map that divided the Island into 67 lots. I also found out that the map has been restored and is on display at the Confederation Center, so we went to see it.

This is a link telling all about the map. If you are Charlottetown before January I highly recommend taking a look. Its an exciting look into the early history of English settlement on the Island:

SAMUEL HOLLAND MAP