The Pulkkanen homestead was situated in a very typical spot in Kuusamo, on top of the hill Pulkkasenvaara in Kuolio. The main building was built by Mikko Heikki Pulkkanen in 1885 or 1886. A large extended family lived in the house consisting of three generations with 18 people, two servants and two manual labourers. The servants lived with the family, but the manual labourers were day workers, living in their own homes. In the 1930s a generational handover occurred with the family’s oldest children getting married, and the old matron dying. The eldest of the children, Pauli, lived with his family in the porch-turned-bedroom. The other four children lived in the main living area, and the kitchen also had a bed. Usually five to seven people slept in the living area. During summer time people could also sleep in the storage houses and in the attic. The house was lived in until the 1970s, when it was moved to the museum grounds.

The outside of the building has stayed almost completely unchanged for a century. The only changes are to the veranda, which was moved closer to the main living area, thus making it possible to use the porch as a bedroom. This old spot of the door is still visible on the right side of the current veranda, on the outside wall of the main living area.

The main living area

The main living area is the centre of activity in the house. It is at the same time a living room, dining room, office and a bedroom. It was divided in two halves: men’s on the porch door’s side and women’s on the fireplace’s side. During winter time the father Kustaa’s Fennia-bike was stored in the living area, and the children used to ride it indoors while practising cycling.

In both of the room’s farthest corners were beds, which could be extended from the sides. People also slept on the long benches along the walls and on straw mattresses on the floors. On the men’s side were the workbench and a table for making fishing nets. The women’s side had a spinning wheel and a loom. The room was lit by the piisi, shingles and an oil lamp above the dining table.

The vocal point of the room was the fireplace. In its corner was a piisi, a small opening where shingles, candles or oil lamps could be burned. Bread was commonly baked once a year during winter, because the fireplace, when heated to the baking temperature, made the room scorching hot. In Kuusamo the typical bread was made from rye and barley, since bread made from these ingredients didn’t go bad so easily. The fireplace of the living room in House Pulkkanen was big enough to simultaneously bake 26 breads.

The kitchen

Opposite the porch is the kitchen, which had its walls and roof limed white. The white paint reflects light and thus makes it easier to see during dark autumn and winter evenings. The room was lit with shingles and oil lamps. Decoration was minimal, no decorative textiles or carpets. Food was made in the kitchen, but eaten at the main living area’s large dining table. Most of the tableware was made from wood and they were washed with self-made soap and a sponge made from birch bark. The dishes were dried on the veranda. The wooden tableware was stored on benches and in baskets. Smaller items, such as the coffee set, were stored in a cupboard. The kitchen also had a milk corner where the separator, churn, cheese containers and milk bails were stored.

One of the kitchen’s corners was reserved for a washing area, where people could wash their faces and men shave their beards. On the upper side of the washing table, underneath the table top, was where the enamel washing basin and the wooden soap box were stored. The rest of the washing equipment was stored in the cupboard part of the table.

The kitchen chamber

The kitchen side bedroom was used by the Pulkkanen family’s grandparents: Mikko Heikki and Reeta Sofia. Both had their own beds and in front of the windows, tables with chairs. In 1934 or 1935 the walls had been covered with Kaiku-newspapers from Oulu, and in the 1940s with cardboard, which had been attached with nails. Currently the walls are covered with Liitto-newspapers.

The grandfather’s bed was at the corner on the kitchen side, and the grandmother’s on the porch side. Both beds were extendable from the side. The grandfather was paralysed in the 1930s, spending most of his time in the bedroom and moved around by a stretcher if needed. The tables had small tablecloths and the walls had small, embroidered pictures, but the floors were bare. The room’s current tablecloth was made according to the design of the wife of the old teacher Lämsä, who worked in Tavajärvi.

The porch chamber

The porch side bedroom was where the family’s parents lived: father Kustaa “Kustu” and mother Sofia, as well as the youngest sons Erkki Kustaa and Johannes. In the 1930s the room had wallpapers, which were ruined during the process of moving the house to the museum grounds. Wallpaper similar to the original is currently present in the room. Facing the fireplace was the parents’ bed, which could be extended from the end. At the corner next to the door was the boys’ bed, which could be extended from the side. The small floor storage was used to hide tobacco.

The parent’s bedroom was typically the best decorated room in the house. The floors were covered with carpets and the walls had tapestries, which were meant to keep the cold at bay. The room was also used for entertaining important guests, like the priest or the lensmann. The coffee table currently in the room was recovered from a dugout shelter used by

the Russian soldiers in Tiililä. The tablecloth is made according to the design of Jenni Kantola. The chairs, which were originally white, were made by Paavo Kallunki in Haataja.