Mary, and Cindy (our 28 year old "baby" home from Halifax for the holiday) stuffed the 20+ lb turkey; by 11 AM it was in the oven getting heated up, or so we thought... Early in the afternoon Mary and Cindy were preparing the potato's, carrots, parsnips, "outside" dressing and all the things required for a traditional Christmas dinner at the Wedge House. In the dining room, Dick was busy installing the table extensions, our 48" round antique oak table extends out to 11 feet for these special occaisons. During one of the "bastings" Mary noticed that the oven did not seem to very hot... on checking further she was correct... the poor old propane wall oven had gone out, and after many attempts to re-ignite the pilot light, it just would not go. It looked like we would have to take turkey and pan next door to (our son) Brian and Paula's house for finishing, but after a pleading call to the home of the local propane appliance repairman, who very graciously came over, and, after some adjustments got it going. On Christmas afternoon!!! only on PEI. He strongly suggested that a new control was due early in the new year... (which was done). Mary simply says she wants a "new electric self-cleaning convection wall oven". Whew!! all in one breath!!

Nothing more was said, except for a periodic hint, about a new oven all winter, spring, summer and early fall, but every now and then Dick would be enticed (read dragged) into appliance sections of various home furnishing stores, never realising he was being "set-up". Now he even suspects that Mary had already been touring around on her own...

By late October 1996, the hints became more frequent, " if we don't get a new oven, we are going somewhere else for Christmas dinner "and on and on...
The next step was to have "Joe the carpenter", who did (our son) Richard and Maureen's kitchen, to come and "look".
Then early one Saturday Joe came, and he "looked", and he suggested he would like to have Bonnie Martin, the interior decorator he sometimes works with take a further "look".
Bonnie was called and, within minutes, she was here with her sketch-book. After a few measurements, we soon had an overview drawing of the old kitchen, which Bonnie described as "ugly contemporary". Bonnie is outspoken, anyway we agreed with her.

After a few minutes discussion... kitchen triangles, cook-top, fridge, sink, pot and pan storage, Mary's space and other things, ie:Dick wanted an "island" Mary did not, and more measuring, it was decided that "if" we were going to replace the oven, and "since" the old fridge was around 18 years old, and on the same wall, and "if" we were going to do that wall anyway, we may as well replace the fridge with "one with an ice cube dispenser on the door" (compensation for the "island"??). In five short minutes, Bonnie created a "new" sketch. No "island" but by moving the cook-top over to the opposite wall (next to the oven), we had a "peninsula". Neat!!

Looks good, but it also meant, since the old cook-top would be repaced with a new propane Jenn-Air down-draft in the peninsula , that the north wall would have to be re-worked, not in our original plan (read budget). The "new" overview sketch shows the layout we decided to go with, but now the "east" wall... shows a new window "to lighten up the kitchen"..., "just a little "window desk", would look nice" Bonnie says,

The next step was to find an oven and a fridge which would fit within the 63" space. We did... Mary knew just where they were... a 27" Jenn-Air electric self-cleaning convection wall oven" on sale, mind you, and a 35" Frigidiare 2 door with "ice cubes on the door", 1" to spare... At least we did not have to invade the little desk nook off the dining room...
The process began mid- November , all the accumulation of 39 years in the same kitchen, pots, pans, dishes, Dick's collection of "beer mugs/steins", (sample "Officers Mess Octoberfest 1963"), fondue dishes for 18, a container of real and re-usable "snail shells" ready to be stuffed with "escargots". A gallon bottle chock-a-block with used wine bottle corks, many of them inscribed with dates commerating some special occasion or other in our lives. A pair of old "sisal" wrapped "Chanti" bottles" turned into candle holders and covered with wax drippings, from enjoyable, but almost forgotten, "Italian evenings" with pasta and friends. Everything... was packed in boxes and put in the guest bedroom, or on the dining room floor , or in a boxes in the rec/family room, now our "empty-nester- den", or discarded.

Joe and Dick proceeded with the removal of all the old oven-wall cupboards, torn out to the back side of the living room knotty pine wall. At first we hoped the back of the brick fireplace would be the back-splash for the peninsula, but it was just not presentable, as can be seen by the enclosed pictures, so we decided to switch to a decorative tile. By this time, Joe was ready to pre-fab the new units in his home/garage workshop

The next step, before installation of the new units, was to level the old floor, Joe and Dick retreated to the basement. A 45 gallon drum, a few cement blocks, a 20 ton jack, a few "jack-posts" and some shims brought the old floor to an acceptable "level". An old cedar beam was replaced, with a new laminated beam, the old cedar will be re-cycled into a cedar strip canoe maybe two.
The old vinyl floor tiles were stripped off, new plywood "sub-floor" laid down and ring-nailed every 4", the floor was finally "level".
Now we had to focus our attention on the "old ceiling", easily solved with new strapping, a bundle of shingles, new "vapour barrier", a layer of 3/8" sheetrock, and three days of our time.

The first section Joe had ready was the oven unit; you can see by Mary's expression that she is saying: "see I told you I was getting a new electric self-cleaning convection wall oven", and before Christmas too...
Next came new wiring, and temporary "pig tails" for the new lighting, five new 75 watt "pot-lights" on 2 dimmer switches, will replace the 2 old 100 watt "bulbs in globes", giving over three times the amount of light, using halogen and probably half the electricity...

Joe and Dick were now becoming a team, and the team proceeded to dismantle the "old" orange (Uh!) countertop /cook-top up as far as the dishwasher, which was to be replaced with the new floor to ceiling "pantry". Off came the ugly green cupboard doors, and out the dining room patio door went all the old cupboard framing, countertop, cook/top, old gyproc and "seaweed" insulation (originaly this was an outside wall), for awhile we could not see out the patio door.

Our friend Silver Donald Cameron hit the nail on the head in his recent book "Sniffing the Coast"when he says:"Mary Wedge has a deceptive, grandmotherly demeanor; the Wedges are grandparents, several times over... they live on 18 acres of waterfront a mile above the yacht club, in a much-enlarged summer home-the only one-storey house on Prince Edward Island with an elevator..."
The words "waterfront " and "much enlarged summer home" become evident as we begin to remove the old seaweed insulation.

"In" went new insulation (for sound deadning), all new wiring to accomodate the toaster, coffee maker, microwave, new switches, lots of plugs to power any other things which could/would potentially go on that wall, and the 7' high x 66" wide x 14" deep frame for the new "pantry".

Our friend Elmer Newson called one afternoon, inquiring what Dick was up to these days, Mary replied that Dick was helping Joe the carpenter. Elmer wanted to know if " Joe charged more if Dick was helping".

Several times during the day, the floor would have to be swept and vaccumed to get rid of the sawdust in an attempt to keep it out of the other rooms. Every evening we would throughly clean before preparing dinner, we never missed a meal during the whole project... The woodstove was keeping up with the cut-up debris very nicely.

It was now time to tackle the last section, from the dishwasher to the dining room door. The dishes we used daily were kept stored in the dishwasher, which was replaced but not moved, everything else went in boxes for storage in the back bedroom hall and the livingroom. Again the old was all removed and what could be re-cycled went out the patio door, everything else was cut up and burned in the wood stove. We seemed to be removing a lot more material than we were putting back... For a while, we almost could not see our daily evening sunset.
The typical summer sunset view from our dining room table shown above, shows grandson Michael in meditation, (read, contemplating his next bit of mischief).

Joe went home to build the corner cabinet sections and Dick laid the balance of the sub-floor.

When Joe returned, he also had the new countertop, which fitted perfectly. Everything was levelled (the corner of a piece of wood shingle did the trick) , and screwed to the wall. After the first glance we knew we had not made a mistake by starting this renovation, we now had more counter-top space, and more storage space than we had before, as an added bonus we got to discard things which were no longer useful.

We called the plumber Jimmy Smith, to install the old sink in the new counter top, he refused, " that sink is not going in that top" he was adamant.
Off to the store to buy the identical sink and it was soon installed. Dick had a new set of single lever Moen kitchen faucets, purchased at an bankrupcy sale for a fraction of their value several years ago; the only problem was the new faucets only used 2 of the 3 holes in the sink!!! Jimmy says: "not to worry, no one will even notice", and out the door he went with his tools, chuckling to himself. He returned the next day with a soap dispenser for the 3rd hole... which he had planned all along...

It was time to order the new cupboard doors, measurements were taken and 33 "raised panel" birch doors were ordered, delivery in 3 weeks. Then we shut down for the holidays.
In the new year, the doors were not ready, so Joe and Dick focussed their attention on the east window wall, which was stripped out to the 2 x 4's, the old seaweed insulation was removed, and 2 x 2's were nailed to the inside of each stud to give us a 6" wall. The framing for the new double-hung vinyl window (vinyl is final) was all done from the inside; the wall was re-insulated, re-wired, new vapour barrier and new sheetrock made the job almost complete. The next fine day we cut the hole and installed the window unit. Bonnie called it a transformation from "R-C-thru to R-20". To finish the wall, we "wainscoted" the lower 30", with 3" x 5/8" "double tongue and batten" birch which Joe milled at home. It will be pickled the same as the cupboards. Joe installed a "fold down ledge", Bonnies "window desk", to the new window sill.

One day, Mary mentioned to Joe that she would like to have a "small corner desk with a filing cabinet drawer and oak top", to fit in the small corner by the fridge, on the dining room side of the kitchen. This was to replace the old leather in-lay covered, lift-top oak desk, originally Dick's from grade one, which mom Marie purchased and re-finished when St. Mary's Convent closed, (Dick says:she found it up the back outside stairs, first door to the left, second desk from the front on the window side.)
The next day Joe was back with Mary's new desk. Two filing drawers, and another for smaller things.
The "old" (1940's) desk, which really did not fit there anyway, was passed on to grand-son Michael who is "some proud" of his new desk... a case of re-cycling and it is still in the family.