Saturday abandoned wall mini-mystery

ethicalpaul

So today I'm fixing my wall adjacent to my living room coat closet. The plaster had broken away when I removed the panelling and wallpaper that was there.

When I was in there looking at it today I found a mystery. There is wall plaster in there, including the white coat, facing into (behind) the interior corner, see below:



This "hidden" wall is parallel to the wall on the left that is under the stairs.

From circled area above:


So why was there ever a finished plaster wall here? Let's go to the blueprint!



My first thought was, maybe there was no stairway to the basement here originally. I have bulkhead doors to the basement on the back of the house. Maybe there was a storage space under the stairs. But when I look at the blueprint, it seems apparent that the design has basement stairs on it.

But here are some other photos of the area from the other side:

The door to the basement in the kitchen:


The top of the basement stairway. Maybe there's something behind those boards? Maybe that's the same finished wall I can see in the living room corner with something run behind it and covered up with the boards (like plumbing or wiring, although I don't see any sign of any above or below it):


The first floor boards in the basement stairwell:


Why is that finished wall hidden back there?

Jamie Hall

Something behind the boards... but what? And why? And when? That's part of the fun of older houses!

bucksnort

That's where the gold is Matey!

Jon_blaney

The drawing is of the design. What you have is the as-built. That plaster should be on the basement stair landing wall. The closet wall structure is on the closet side of the wall instead of the stair side, therefore the boards to cover up the goof. Or, it could be that the stairs are narrower the planned. Or, it is just to make you nuts.

JUGHNE

On the print, the basement stairs look to be narrower than 2nd floor stairs.
The left hand wall of the closet would have to picked up the load of the double floor joists for the second floor, then hopefully transfer that load down to the first floor double.

Is your hidden plaster behind the sheetrock wall?
The SR may have been installed to cover up cracked or beat up plaster.

You have to pull the rock off now so we will know.

EBEBRATT-Ed

I agree wit @bucksnort

The gold bars may be in their!!!!!

Is it possible the plastered the house and built the closet after the fact?

Doesn't make sense though