I was SO wrong

I mean like STUPENDOUSLY wrong.
About the ghost door and the stairs to the Boot Room.
(Oh, and when I wrote that the ceiling was tongue in groove, I meant to say BEADED. Tongue in groove is flooring. Damned aphasia.)

Anyway, my doubts arose quickly.

Like...

(1) How could these stairs NOT be original stairs up to the Boot Room? Look at them! They are all old and beat up! They look just like the cellar stairs by the office.

Top of the Boot Room stairs. Don't you love this view? You have to walk through the chip room to get to the boot room. The baggie back stock room is through the door to the left.

Looking down from the top. Look at the worn edges!

Looking down from the landing.

These are the cellar stairs. See how they have the same sort of wear pattern?

(2) Why does that beam over the office take a 90 degree turn? That is just not normal.

The bent beam.

(3) Why is the ceiling so utterly different in the Screw Room if there is just one addition for the toy department, the office/Nail Bench/Boot Room stairs area, and the Screw Room?

Looking into the Screw Room (really called Nuts And Bolts) from in front of the Boot Room stairs. See how the ceiling is slanted, low and unfinished? Also see the Surveyor's Tape Department over the door? Classic. That deserves its own post, really.

Finally, common sense prevailed. I asked Got Dinner some questions. He knows a lot of stuff about the building. After all, he spent his childhood there exploring all its nooks and crannies. He tells great stories.

YAY!!!

He told me a crap ton of stuff. I learned SO MUCH today.
To be continued...

(FYI, Got Dinner is in charge of wood for all the stoves in the basement. The wood for the store is an amazing story yet to be told.)