Electrifying Treasures

The electricians came before the July 4th holiday and got the electrical work done that we had asked for.  When we showed up on their last day they said they had "run" into an issue with installing a light above the kitchen sink.  He asked if we knew there was a chimney in the attic where the light was to go---and of course we did not.  So needless to say we won't have a light above the sink.  A few days later we had to take a look for ourselves and guess what we found---not one but two chimney's sitting on 1 1/2 inch thick shiplap.  The one above the kitchen sink is on the west end of the house and the other one is on the east side right above what was the living room and entry from the front door.  

Here are a few things we uncovered as well.  Ross & Lena Martin's oldest son was Yates Martin and Geneva Martin was the third oldest daughter.  We found several old high school school books that had Yates' signature in it and Geneva's report card from her senior year in 1931.  It appears that Geneva was taking Spanish as we found her Spanish book and a piece of paper that she had handwritten the Lord's Prayer on.  I was impressed that Talpa High School offered Spanish then as a small school.

As we began the grueling task of taking down the wall between the two rooms, we uncovered something else.  We removed sheetrock, a layer of wallpaper that was on what looked like cardboard and a layer of wallpaper on cheesecloth which would have been original to the house in the 1920's.  You can see below the two layers and the really ornate medallion on the original wallpaper. And of course, underneath all that is more shiplap!

As always, more to come.