House in Progress Diary

Are they short pieces of wood nailed to the joist, or are they longer pieces of wood coming through the joist?

Is the front porch on the other side of that wall? Perhaps a crude cantilver type thing to support a porch ceiling on the other side?

I was going to vote for the porch thing... But I've seen them elsewhere, sorta. In the house I saw them in, they went all the way up to the floorboards, and it was an attempt to support the extra weight of a cast iron bath tub... since they don't go all the way up, I'm guessing, no. so back to the porch idea. however, since they are different widths, thy seem to be something "temporary" that was just covered over... ie something to aide in construction. so, basically, your guess is better than mine. curious to know more, though. do just end at the joist?

Perhaps they are scraps (they look like non-uniform scraps) fastened there to provide something to connect the edge of the ceiling. If it were originally a plaster ceiling, perhaps the metal lathe connected to these at the edge (maybe because the plaster wall would have come out too far for it to catch the last joist). Or perhaps so that something could be fastened to them temporarily during the building process?

Hmmm. They don't go through to the other side. They are just on this side.

Re: pilgrim's guess. The ceiling was originally wood lathe and plaster. Perhaps they attached some of the lathe to these, but wouldn't they stretch all the way across the edge of the wall if that were the case? Maybe not.

Above this wall is the exterior wall of the dormer on the second floor. so, maybe cantilever? Or maybe they extended across the room at some point during construction and got cut off when construction was finished.

Interesting guesses...

Just a wild guess, but I'm going with supports for the porch roof. Some of the exterior features (the bay window for instance) on the Devil Queen are built into the walls, etc. It seems like I've seen similar things in old farm houses too.