Thanks all for the feedback! This house is going to be a big adventure, and I'm sure I'll be posting often. (Long time reader of this forum, but I've never had much to contribute before!) It may or may not have been gas originally. I rather suspect it was; it was a urban house even back in 1900, and that was common. There are two chimneys in the building and looks like two flues apiece -- but this is the only visible fireplace. (The other rooms simply have a chimney brest long since plastered over.) I didn't recall that the hearth was off-set, but that's part of the reason I took so many pictures. Everytime I go in I've discovered some new cool detail I didn't see before. Good advice on checking to see what the brick really looks like, lido; I'll defintiely see what I can find. What you're describing calliope is what I was picturing; nice ornate wood mantel and smooth plaster covering the brick up to the 9/12' ceiling. It certainly seems more appropriate for the room. Given the care the PO took restoring this place, I wonder if that was what was there originally, but it was so damaged by the time she got the house that she took it back to the brick to restore it, but ran out of time. There's a ton of research to do, and plenty of time to do it -- thanks all for the input! (Irish curls -- that's a really pretty fireplace. Is that a painting over the mantel or inset tiles?)

I think the "proper" way to do the stairs would be (would have been) to shift the stairwell over to the other side of the gargantuan beam. Then it would come down a half flight into the hallway with the bedroom and bathroom, and continue on down into the basement at the end of the hall (where the current short flight of stairs is). I don't know that you can change it at this point, as it depends on what's upstairs on the other side of the beam, but that seems to me to be the right way to do this. You could certainly cut through that beam and create a doorway out the side. Anything's possible with some structural engineering. And it looks like the perpendicular beam that's resting on the gargantuan one would be the other side of said doorway. However, you'd need to create a landing there, and that would extend the run of the stairs on down into the basement, which would reduce your head room. So I don't think that's the best solution. So what's there, quirky as it may be, is perhaps the lesser of the evils.

I’m not sure about plants for your area ... maybe take a picture to a local nursery and see what they suggest for sizes, your soil type, etc. :) (I used a combo of ornamental grass, dwarf shrub, perennials. A dwarf Nandina might work there for the shrub — there are lots of varieties that have nice color all year.)

BC...... - Yes, I would recommend it. I don't exaggerate when I say thousands of Houzz/Gardenweb members have adopted the 5:1:1 or similar medium based on a large fraction of coarse particles, a formula which ensures little or no water occupies the spaces between soil particles, which is the water that turns out to be seriously limiting. mix and been vocal about the results. Many of the most experienced and reliable contributors to GardenWeb fora use the 5:1:1 mix or something based on the same concept, an understanding of the concept being far more valuable than the basic recipe as it increases options/flexibility. There are 2 ways to view care regimens. One perspective is from the grower's POV, the other is from the plant's. More often than not, the two are mutually exclusive. For instance, it's not unusual for some growers to grouse about having to water plants in the 5:1:1 mix or a facsimile more often than they had to water plants in the medium they abandoned because of its excessive water retention. From the grower's perspective, the extra watering, say every 4-6 days as opposed to every 2-3 weeks might be viewed as an inconvenience, but from the plant's perspective the additional effort makes perfect sense; after all, most growers who love tending plants are just getting their nurturing bone scratched. The choice is left to the grower w/o judgement about the decision. Not that it particularly matters, my connection with the plants/bonsai I care for is grounded in the need to nurture, the enjoyment I get from the practical application of what I know of the plant sciences, the continual pursuit of greater proficiency, and in having found the only real artistic outlet I can think of in my life, except perhaps for what time I share with my local gardening community and here, helping others seeking information with the potential to further pursuits that run parallel to or overlap with my own. Edited to add: Do you think it will shock it terribly if I repot it in the 5-1-1 mix? Nothing I see requires emergent care beyond closer monitoring your watering habits, making sure your plants are properly fertilized, and making sure light/temperature ranges are appropriate. Plants have natural rhythms during which their level of vitality (health/energy level) gradually but significantly varies. Healthy plants are strongest and best able to deal with heavy work like hard pruning and full repots (as opposed to potting up) as the summer solstice approaches on June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere. Immediately before the solstice is the best time to repot and prune because not only will the plant be at it's highest level of stored energy, it's current ability to make food (photosynthesize) will be peaking. This means the plant's natural defenses against insects and disease should be at peak, and recovery from the work should occur faster than at any other time of year. I would make appropriate changes to your care regimen now, but wait to repot until June. In the interim, I can help you with strategies that will help you deal with any concerns about excess water retention or fertilizing. Also, what do you mean by flushing it? See below, "Flushing soils". When the fig is dry (by sticking my finger in and by using my meter) I water just until it starts draining out the bottom and then let it drain usually the rest of the day. Unless your pot is less than 5 " deep, your finger is an unreliable probe. If you have a 10" deep pot with the top 2 inches feeling dry, it's possible that the bottom 6" of the soil are 100% saturated. Water meters don't measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. To confirm, clean the probe and insert into a cup of distilled water and witness the reading of "DRY". Add a pinch of salt and watch the needle move to "Wet" or "Moist" - whatever term used on the meter. A wooden "Tell" is a very reliable tool to test moisture levels deep in the pot. See "Using a Tell" below. I can try setting my water out the day before I use it or switch to distilled water. Once you've absorbed this information, we can talk more about watering and some tricks to help reduce the amount of water your containers can/will hold. Remind me if you have interest. Flushing Soils When you water, you should be able to flush planting's soil to eliminate the potentiality of salts from fertilizers and tapwater accumulating in the soil, thereby limiting the plant's ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in the water. If you think you shouldn't flush the soil during your regular water applications for fear the soil will remain saturated for a lengthy period, limiting root function or worse, you should consider a different soil or take steps to reduce the amount of excess water your soil can hold. By whatever means necessary, getting to the point you can water correctly is going to make a very big difference in the opportunity to realize as much of it's genetic potential as possible. Once you can water correctly, you no longer have to do battle with a water-retentive medium over control of your plant's vitality. There are several methods of limiting how much water your planting can hold, all but 1 or 2 are completely passive, requiring no effort on your part other than set-up, which is monkey easy. I can help if you have interest in that, I'm continually improving my proficiency at monkey easy tasks. To flush the soil of a planting: Water with room temperature water until the soil is completely saturated. Allow the planting to rest for 15 minutes to an hour to allow as much of the salt accumulation as possible to go into solution, then pour a volume of room temp water equal to at least 10X the volume of the pot the plant is in slowly through the soil. This will remove most of any accumulation of offending salts and resolve any skewing of nutrient ratios. It's a good idea, no matter what time of year, to fertilize most plants immediately after flushing the soil. Try to be sure you're using a fertilizer that has a ratio as close as possible to the ratio at which the plant uses nutrients. The NPK % listed on fertilizer packaging is not its ratio. 7-7-7 and 14-14-14 are 1:1:1 ratios. 9-3-6, 12-4-8, and 24-8-16, are all 3:1:3 ratios. Container growers should try very hard to avoid use of fertilizers advertised as 'bloom-boosters', or any number with a middle number (Phosphorous) higher than either the first or third numbers (Nitrogen or Potassium). These fertilizers can badly skew nutrient ratios with even the first application). On average, plants use about 6x as much N as P, so there is NO potential for a positive outcome when supplying many times as much P as the plant requires. I, and a large number of other members, use Dyna-Gro's Foliage Pro 9-3-6. It's designed to closely mimic the uptake ratio of the average plant, and has many other attributes not commonly found in other fertilizers. It also has ALL of the nutrients essential to normal growth. Summarized, it makes fertilizing as easy as it can be, and from 1 container. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al