The excavation is nearly complete under the basement. I’m in awe at the amount of space that’s opened up under the house. I spent a good hour wandering around, thinking about expanding the scope, possibly putting in a home theater under the living room, maybe putting in a full concrete floor. Good thing those thoughts didn’t get too far!I’ve also uncovered one big mystery. The large closet in the northwest bedroom upstairs, the one that used to have a fireplace but doesn’t, has old hand-split lathe that matched the rest of the original house. We know there was a chimney up there in 1890; the old picture supports that. You can see some patching in the ceiling of the bedroom, with milled lathe, that is where the chimney was. The bathrooms, which were added in 1924, also have milled lathe.
I just can’t explain how that closet can look exactly like the rest of the upstairs, unless there was a significant overhaul of the upstairs between 1890 (date of old picture) and 1924, when the bathrooms were re-done. I personally doubt that though.Like a little kid, I decided that I had to indulge myself for one thing. The east chimney has been removed, and when you stand in the crawlspace you look up at least 30 feet to the peak of the roof. Lying down, looking allll the way up is pretty nifty. I probably spent 10 minutes there, just like when you were a kid and would watch the clouds go by.
