When Andrea (Andy) McIntosh was a young girl, growing up in 1950s rural eastern Prince Edward Island, she often dreamed of renovating her parents' home.

"As a child, I would ask myself, "What is the first thing I would change if I had the chance?" I decided that I would install big, wooden doors," says the public health nurse who lives with her husband, Guy, in Tea Hill, on the outskirts of Charlottetown.

Andy got her chance to restore the 58-year-old rural home that's located in the tiny hamlet of Bear River at The Crossing, so named because it is adjacent to what was once a railroad station and railway crossing. The abandoned railway line is now a 300-kilometre long recreation path known as the Confederation Trail.

Regrettably, the opportunity to renovate the house came when her 87-year-old father, Gerard, died in 2000, and her mother, Celia (now 92), moved into a senior citizen's residence. The 1,800-square-foot house that Gerard and Celia had built in 1949 was passed on to Andy and her younger sister, Melanie, also a nurse who works as manager of sports medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

American writer Bill Bryson said he always thought that once you grew up, you could do anything you wanted, such as stay up all night or eat ice cream straight out of the container. When Andy and Melanie were growing up, the front section of the house served as a grocery store until Andy was 10. It's possible that the two young girls had their fill of candy and chocolate, so once they were grown up, they could do what they wanted with the house.

The old family homestead was in need of repair, and Andy and Melanie originally decided they would sell the house, which is a 10-minute ride from the ocean. However, in the winter after their father died, Andy had what can only be described as an epiphany.

"My father always took me into the woods to cut the Christmas tree," Andy says. "It was our little tradition. But in the final year of his life, he was unable to accompany me."

The year after he died, when Andy was alone in the woods with her axe, she felt an overwhelming sense of peace. A powerful feeling that she and her sister were not meant to sell the house engulfed her.

"Within two minutes of that decision, I knew precisely what renovations I would make to the house," she says, "and it involved more than changing the doors!"

Andy called her sister in Connecticut, and Melanie agreed that the old house should be fixed up to serve as a legacy to their parents' 55-year marriage.

Melanie is quite familiar with her older sister's sense of style and fashion, so she gave her approval to the shared-cost renovation and a free rein to update the home while retaining its rustic charm.

Work on the six-month project began in February 2001. Andy hired a number of Island trades people to do the repairs and renovations, with one major qualification: that they link the past to the present and provide a sense of historic family continuity. Under Andy's direction, contractor Ray MacCormack was charged with preserving the soul of the home by maintaining its cherished traditional elements. Spanish writer Jose Bergamin best described the meaning of the word 'tradition' when he wrote, "We need to end what began well and continue what is worth continuing."

The job of demolishing the walls, built 58 years ago by Island carpenter Frank Praught, fell to Danny Cook and his son, who also installed the plumbing. While dismantling a built-in bookcase in the living room, and wall panelling that stretched the length of the house, the men uncovered a wall constructed of PEI sandstone Creek Brick. Beneath the PEI soil is a thick, fractured formation of sandstone bedrock that was formed many millions of years ago. The brick was originally laid by local mason Angus Rice, and it is rarely seen in Island homes and buildings that were mostly constructed of wood.

The brick wall remains in the Bear River house where it serves as a focal point in the living and dining rooms. It can also be viewed partially from the kitchen and along the stairs leading to the second level. Rodney McTague, who sanded and refinished the original birch and pine floors, also cleaned the unique brick. In the living and dining room area, McTague expertly matched up new wooden floors to complement the original birch wood.

The most dramatic change occurred along the side of the house that faced the railroad tracks. This was originally the front of the grocery store nearly a half-century ago. In its place today are new casement windows 5'6" high and six feet wide. Over the windows, bright canopies, from Nulook Blinds in Charlottetown, serve as reminders of the original fascia. In place of the long- discarded counter, a pine table, measuring nearly nine feet in length, is the dominant feature in the dining room. Andy says it was once a display table in a Home Hardware store. A 'pass-through' was included in the wall between the kitchen and dining room.

The living and dining rooms are endowments of the family history that permeates the house. Andy's mother fills in historical facts regarding the original furniture that shares space with newly purchased items. "That was my grandmother's piano," says Celia, pointing to a Schubert 'Maritime Cottage' upright piano.

Turning her attention to the living room, she tells a story of taking the train to Charlottetown in the early 1950's to purchase furniture from Holman's Department store, a chain started in 1857 by a struggling young businessman named R.T. Holman. When he died in 1906, his store chain was the largest of its kind on the Island. Among the furniture are three chairs, including two well worn, red velvet pieces and a seven-foot-long French provincial chesterfield.

As one passes from the living room through a reading room, a 32X32-inch iron grate dominates the centre of the room's original pine floor. Andy's husband, Guy, insisted that it remain in place for nostalgic and practical reasons. An oil furnace is located in the cellar below and provides heat through the original grate.

The steps leading to the second floor are described as "the little humble stairs" because they were installed in 1949 as a temporary staircase and remained in place for nearly six decades. An upstairs bathroom features a vintage 61-inch clawfoot cast-iron bathtub with porcelain interior. These tubs are a rarity on the Island because New York antique dealers scour the Island's farmhouses, auctions and garage sales in search of the European-designed bathtubs, and return to the U.S. where the antiquated tubs command top dollar. Andy stumbled across hers in the north-shore community of Rustico, when a woman happened to mention that a neighbour had one she might be willing to part with.

'Recycling' is the key word on the second floor. A ceiling chandelier was taken from the old kitchen, and original wall panelling was removed from a downstairs wall and installed on the upper level. Most of the wainscoted walls throughout the restored home, as well as original cupboards and drawers, have been painted with white, oil-based enamel paint. In the kitchen, sage green cupboards have been painted with a low-lustre alkyd enamel.

Quaintness rules supreme in the three upstairs bedrooms. In one corner of a room is Andy and Melanie's 'potty chair' from a bygone era, and in another room is a white-painted wooden chest that belonged to their aunt Cathy (pronounced 'Cattie') who lived in Yonkers, N.Y. until her death in 2001 at age 92.

The exterior of Bear River Station, as the house is now called, remains true to the home's roots. A wooden deck that was diagonally constructed around an undisturbed and gnarled crab apple tree stretches the full length of the front of the house. Creek Brick is the facing on this side of the house, while the south side is vinyl sided. A large flag, bearing the likeness of a bear crossing a river, was procured by Melanie in the U.S. The east side of the house is a favourite because an enclosed sitting room faces a forest. Melanie calls it 'The Writer's Room' because the quiet and peacefulness provides a perfect setting for creative solitude. A dented dipper (ladle) hangs from a nail on the wall of the rustic room.

Throughout the house, indicators of rural and Island life are evident everywhere, from a painted rooster depicted on an accent table in the kitchen, to a barnyard scene brightly decorated on the sugar and cream dishes on the dining room table, and wooden replicas of sandpipers that can be seen scurrying along PEI's sandy beaches. Memories include framed black-and-white family photographs that are prominently displayed, Celia's poetry books (the poems of Robert Service are among her favourites), and a framed certificate from 1960-61 that indicates Gerard was once a proud member of The Leader's Club with the Maritime Life Assurance Company.

It has been said that to forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root. Andy and Melanie could have placed Bear River Station on the market a few years ago and sold it to the highest bidder, but the home they've restored is a testament to their love of family, tradition, and their rural roots. Their profound respect for the past is evident in every nook and cranny, and their feelings are outlined on a single greeting card, by Jean M. Trainor, of Charlottetown, that's displayed in the house. It depicts a weather-beaten, wood-shingled home, and a poem that includes these words: "Tread gently if you pass this way, and remember those who have gone away to a better place."
-Photos by Wayne W. Crouse, September/October 2004