An Abhainn: Happy Islander Day

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at a project very similar in a lot of ways to what we are doing to the house at the River. My friend Arnold Smith restored his family home about 10 years ago and this is his story. Arnold wrote:

"My Sharpe ancestor, Robert Sharpe A carpenter and furniture builder and his second wife Jane Jeffery moved to the farm here in 1860 and called it Pleasant Hill Farm. I think that the community was named Pleasant Valley after that. They had one son Isaac. When they arrived there was a small house already here (a section on the present kitchen wing) over the years it was lengthened 3 times, had the wall plate raised and a steeper pitched roof added. Then the main section was added after Isaac married Catherine Nicholson. The family grew to include 8 children. Their daughter Cassie is my grandmother, who married William Goudling Weeks and they had a daughter Dorothy who married my father George Smith and they had 5 children.

I can stand on a hill on our farm and see around me the old farmsteads where my parent were both born at home 85 and 86 years ago, where my 4 grandparents were born and my 8 great-grandparents were born and a good number of my great-great grandparents were born or made their home when they first moved into this part of the Island. My first ancestor came to PEI in 1780, they were United Empire Loyalists fleeing the USA after the American Revolution. The last came in 1859 from the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

The Last of the Sharpe descendants to live on the home farm sold it in the 1980's and in 1999 the present owner built a new house and was going to demolish the old house so I was able to get it on the condition I moved it away quickly. So I moved it to the Smith home farm on the Smith Road on the other side of the valley. A distance of 1 mile as the crow flies and a mile and a half around the road. It took just 45 minutes to get it here and we had no problems with the power and phone lines as they were high enough for the house to slip under or in the case of the phone lines they just dropped them and drove over them.

After the house was in the spot I had selected they raised the house up to the level I wanted plus a bit to give room to work on the foundation and proceeded to dig the foundation out under it. The house has a walk out basement so that made the job easier. The move went well and there was almost no cracking in the plaster. They had been very careful and were very good at what they do.

The footings were put in and the forms came next to the exact size of the house which was a blessing as the house had been enlarged and added so many times that one end of the kitchen wing was 4 inches narrower than the other and if we had built the foundation first the house would not have fit. I then proceeded to add a 2 car garage with an adjoining section to the house and a sunroom all in a style they would make it look like it was part of the house or at least added in such a way that it did not scream new addition. Carter was a great help when it came to getting the right scale and design to make it all come together. I replaced all the windows and doors, shingled the roof and replaced the cedar shingles with new cedar while keeping the old decorative cut designs. On the inside we stripped out all the old plaster, insulation, plumbing and wiring. All the doors and trim were removed, stripped off and replaced. Even the original hard wood and pine floors were refinished. The house now has a southern exposure so the windows allow in lots of light and give the house a bright and cozy atmosphere."

Below are before and after shots of Arnold's kitchen.