The past couple of weeks we have been working on the stairway.  We pulled off all of the old plaster and slats and tore out the old wallboard.  We started the insulation, but needed to add more.  We noticed that there wasn’t insulation along the stairs on the first floor.  In order to insulate this, we would either have to gut the closet under the stairs, or use a shake and rake insulation.  We opted to pour the insulation down the side of the stairs rather than take out the closet.

 

We insulated the rest of the wall and put up a vapor barrier.  Now we are ready to drywall the stairway and hallway.

The stairway was drywalled by previous owners, but never mudded.  The previous owners used whatever they had on hand, and this small hall at the top of the stairs had nearly 30 pieces of drywall put together.  We decided to start over and put in new drywall so it wasn’t a mudding and sanding nightmare.  This also allowed us to add insulation where they had not.

 

When taking down the drywall at the top of the stairs, we were able to expose the brick chimney.  While it isn’t a particularly good brick job, it is no longer in use and won’t matter much.

 

We noticed one of the bricks had 1891 carved into it.

 

When we originally bought the house, they dated it at 1920.  We then thought it was an Ojibway Company Mining House, which would put it in the early 1900s.  If this brick is correct, the house is even older than we thought.

If the brick was in better shape, I would love to leave it exposed, but it just doesn’t look great.  The top part has been redone and is in even worse shape.  So, the 1891 brick will be hidden behind drywall once again, but maybe someone will find it again down the road.

We should have a drywall/stairway update soon (if all goes well over the next week or so).  Thanks for reading!