Working on the room that is going to be turned into a small photo studio eventually. The man who built this house was a maniac.
You know how old houses have a chair-rail 3'-4' off the floor to protect the plaster from the back of the chairs? This room has what appears to be a chair-rail ten-inches down from the ceiling. But only on two walls. Each 8-foot rail extends from the same corner. Each rail was held in place by a half dozen ten-penny nails. In the corner there is a 12-inch wide shelf that extends in both directions for two feet It is held up by a pair of basic stamped metal shelf brackets on top of the shelf. The shelf is nailed into the chair rail, and the brackets are nailed into the wall, once more by ten-penny nails. So far, I have pulled ten nails out of the shelf unit, and lost about a quart of blood from scrapes, increased the cat's vocabulary of dirty words, and the shelf is still solidly attached to the wall. I did get the two receptacles up by the ceiling replaced. Not sure why he decided to put a receptacle on each wall, eight inches down from the ceiling, each controlled by its own switch, but there you have it.
On the other hand, the switched receptacles may be useful for plugging in ceiling mounted lighting, so we'll see.
