We've been living this old house for 7yrs. One of the first projects we did was exposing and making a feature wall ala Joanna Gaines, which was a job but so worth it!

I'm working on the the "niche". Originally there was a chimney, one of 3 we found while exploring the attic where they'd been cut off at the attic floor. We later dug up 305 of the original stamped bricks buried under the old concrete driveway. We made a walkway from those.

Anyway... I am leaving the raw shiplap lap to drool on, but would like help identifying the actual wood. It's not pine or oak- It's dark and red and in the attic the beams, joists, rafters and even the attic floor lumber is the same look, but darker- still a deep dark red.

I've refinished a lot of wood and this is really hard wood- we found out how hard when tried to mount a tv and couldn't drive a screw into it and couldn't find the studs! Every wall is constructed of 2 layers of this! This baby is as solid as the day she was built and if maintained will be sitting here another 90yrs. Nary a draft, we did add insulation in the attic but it's so solid we can't hear each other in the next room, not to mention a doorbell.

We are getting ready to sell and it's heart-wrenching! I've rehabbed, flipped and rented houses in the Dallas area most my life but have never made one my home like this one. It's a great old house that will always have a place in my heart.

If we were staying I would expose the chimney. And every lead paint caked moldings and door and casings and baseboards and so on, etc, etc...

Thanks for any input.