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Artefacts, date unknown...
Jul. 13th, 2010 08:35 pmOur house is getting updated wiring. (There is a saga, involving the house inspection, the insurance inspection and the electrician who never showed up. I will spare you all that bit.) The short version is, our house was built in 1911, and as it turns out, all of the original bits (everything but the downstairs bathroom?) has circa 1920s-50s knob and tube wiring.
Today, the electricians who DID show up did the upstairs and the basement. We now have a) modern wires, and b) a light in the cold-room under the basement stairs, which is much less scary under-the-stairs with a bright halogen light in it. We will probably actually use it now! (Well, I will, my girl is anti-basement and won't go down there.)
But this is the really cool bit. Found by the electrician "way back behind a wall" in the basement: a bunch tobacco tins and a tube of lipstick, circa whenever half a pound of tobacco cost sixty-five cents. The lipstick is a metal (tin?) tube of "Don Juan, Medium Red #5," and looks half-used. I suspect, based on some incredibly inexpert research on my part, it's from the 1930's. Goes with the 1920's fire extingisher and the instructions nailed to a post on how to operate your coal furnace.
In other news, later this week I get to offer five people a job and tell six more they were not successful. And that's just the internal candidates for the clerical positions... new library in six weeks and counting...
Today, the electricians who DID show up did the upstairs and the basement. We now have a) modern wires, and b) a light in the cold-room under the basement stairs, which is much less scary under-the-stairs with a bright halogen light in it. We will probably actually use it now! (Well, I will, my girl is anti-basement and won't go down there.)
But this is the really cool bit. Found by the electrician "way back behind a wall" in the basement: a bunch tobacco tins and a tube of lipstick, circa whenever half a pound of tobacco cost sixty-five cents. The lipstick is a metal (tin?) tube of "Don Juan, Medium Red #5," and looks half-used. I suspect, based on some incredibly inexpert research on my part, it's from the 1930's. Goes with the 1920's fire extingisher and the instructions nailed to a post on how to operate your coal furnace.
In other news, later this week I get to offer five people a job and tell six more they were not successful. And that's just the internal candidates for the clerical positions... new library in six weeks and counting...
