First we cleaned out the attic area and took “before” photos as shown here:

We started the demo the next morning. A couple hours into the demo, we happened upon our first pieces of treasure: A 1940s girlie magazine stash(!!) in an area accessable by a trap ceiling panel we found. We came upon them from the other side of the wall and realized how they got in there shortly after.

Then shortly after that, we happened upon a number of items swept into crevices under the fir flooring at the end of each side of the attic. One of the first things was a miniture 1914 calendar!

Based on the things we uncovered over the next few hours and days, we’ve been able to gather that the attic has always been occupied since the house was built in 1914. If not as sleeping space, then as a sewing room, artist studio and playroom. I’m in the process of scanning and cataloguing all the items that were found in the attic, and will have a full post highlighting those soon. :)

The walls were originally covered with poster-board style cardboard (remnants of which were intact once we removed the cellulose beadboard). Some of this cardboard was elaborate embossed newspaper-looking board (as shown here:)

After several hours of work, we had the attic demo’d about 90%. The fir flooring in the crawlspaces would take longer to remove over the next few days so we could salvage it for repairs and a new landing. Jeremy spent the last few days demoing out the staircase area as well to come to these “after” shots:

View all the attic demo shots, start to finish.

11 Responses to “Attic Demo: Before and After”

1. Cindy says:

   April 10, 2012 at 4:52 pm

   Yes, I have photos of them still in the wall. I also have full pages of them…rough around the edges of them.