Always With the Surprises

You know, it's just never simple, is it? We started removing the baseboards in the upstairs rooms and got at least three surprises.

First, there's redwood paneling behind all the walls. You can see it peeking out at the bottom of this photo. The baseboards always seemed a little shallow -- the wood wasn't as thick as normal -- but it wasn't clear why. Turns out, the drywall was resting on top of the baseboards, not behind them. And that's because they were nailed to the wood paneling behind that. So evidently the baseboards went on first, and then -- probably many decades later -- someone hung drywall over the original paneling.

Second, the baseboards themselves are redwood, not pine. The rest of the trim on the third floor is all pine that's been painted brown or white. It's nothing special and we intend to throw it away. But the baseboards appear to be much older, possibly original to the house. They're certainly as old as the strange paneling they're attached to.

Finally, there's been an electrical wire hiding in plain sight all this time. When I pulled away this piece of baseboard (which is an unbroken piece of redwood more than 10 feet long, by the way) this old piece of AC wiring peeled away from it. It had been stapled to the top of the baseboard and painted the same color, so it looked like part of the trim. Yikes.