A Window into the . . . Soul?

The closet window is top left. Below it is the outline
of an old heater that warmed up the sewing room (we think).

Here's what I learned today about houses built in 1937: there wasn't a lot of air conditioning available so they had to rely on natural currents around the house. When Darryl and Tom (our contractor) pulled the wood paneling off the back wall of the sewing room, they discovered the stucco that covered the back of the original house, and below that the sheet rock that lined the wall. Near the top of the wall was a little window that matches up with the back of our bedroom - our bedroom closet, to be exact. Tom explained that this was a window for the original closet (before it was covered over by plaster when the sewing room was added). He told us that old houses would often have windows in the closets so that people could air out their clothes and avoid mildew. Pretty ingenious, don'tcha think? Tonight Darryl and I examined the inside of our closet and sure enough, we found the outline of the window. We thought it was funny (and possibly a little lazy) that when the room was added, they just threw the wood paneling on top of the old stucco, and on top of the window, instead of pulling it off, sealing up the window, and then plastering.

Darryl has the very important job of sweeping up debris,

By the way, you may have noticed that what we generally called the "ante room" was, in fact, a sewing room. It was put there, presumably, so that the lady of the house would have some place to, well, sew I suppose. Before you ask, no, I did not carry on that tradition in any way, shape or form. When Darryl and I were first married, his mother gave me a sewing machine and suggested I learn to use it so that I could mend clothes and later make my own. Confession time: That machine stayed in its box for about 10 years before I finally gave it away to a friend who actually knew what to do with it. Maybe if I lived in a house where I had to rely on a closet window to make sure my clothes stayed fresh and lasted longer, I'd be the type of person who'd be more inclined to use a sewing machine. Maybe not.