hidden treats

My husband has been cleaning out the old fiberglass insulation in the eaves of our attic, and tucked beneath it all he's found some of the history this house holds.  Maps from National Geographics in the '40's, which are in great condition.  I see some books and collage work in their future!!  He found a number of mud wasp nest beginnings, and a few odds and ends we can't identify, but a whole lot we can as well! 

Click on photos for closer view.

A sample custom made leaf for some curtain rod ends;

Tally-Ho playing cards,

actually printed in New York;

and financial and insurance statements from 1932-34 for a Dr. Ernst Gundelfinger and Alice (née Hirsch) Gundelfinger.  With a quick online search, I found them both in someone's family tree records!  They were married in 1922, while the completion to the building of this house was in 1923, so I'm wondering if they may have been the builders, and if this was their first home together!  I also found references to Alice as the vice president of the New York Society of Craftsmen in 1957.  By then her address is listed as being on Central Park Ave in NYC, but I wonder if the very old, and beautiful easel I found, in our attic when we first moved here, was hers.  Can a house attract similar kinds of people over the years?  Dr husband, artist wife - I wonder what they'd think of our attic renovation becoming an artist studio!  

Most of the banking papers are Alice's, c/o Angelo Hirsch - perhaps her father? One draft from "The Chase National Bank" of the city of New York, dated May 5, 1932, is for $1,936.00, so she was obviously pretty well off, in her own right.  These were all in her maiden name, though dated 10 years into her marriage.  When I first was going through them I thought she and Dr Gundelfinger may have been from different periods in the house, because the names were different, but later I found some for Alice Gundelfinger as well.  Perhaps they were inheritances from her family.  One was "in settlement of this account by draft on Zurich to American Express Co in Zurich..." anyway, I'm amazed at what can be found in about 5 minutes of searching and reading online!  Both Alice and Ernst lived long lives - he until the age of 85, and she was 92.

The blue sheet of paper is a list of freshmen classes at Yale, in New Haven CT.  It's signed by Paul Talmey, with checked off classes he's chosen in the school year 1926-27.  Could be that his family was the first to reside here - I don't know.  I couldn't find anything, other than a very current Paul Talmey in Colorado.  I'll have to get into the city records to figure out everything about this old house!

And now changes are being made and we are making our own history.

The stucco is on, and the roof is complete!

It's hard to see, but the new dormer roof is a standing seam copper roof.

Next spring the the whole house will be painted, so the windows will get the blue trim, and the walls will all be the same color, but I think they did a good job getting the stucco texture to match, so when it's painted it will all blend and look like it's always been this way!

I don't have anything new to share inside, things are looking much the same.

Tomorrow insulation begins getting sprayed in,

which will probably take all week.  Once they finish, the walls can go up and things will begin to pick up.  Walls, lights, built ins, radiant heating in the floors, the floors themselves, bathroom tiling, and lots of finishing details...  

I think we'd be lucky to see completion by Thanksgiving.

I can't be tricked :)