Literally happy to talk about this stuff any time :-D; during my work on our renovations my ADHD has manifested in deep deep dives into the nitty-gritty on stuff like radiators/manifolds, HVAC, wiring possibilities, you name it. I love understanding the HOW of the project as well as knowing enough to be able to push back on fastest/easiest vs. more functional. (In our kitchen reno recently I was able to get the entire air return run across a wall in the basement instead of eating up the entire wall/under stairs area in the kitchen. As a result we gained an under-stairs pantry closet and a kitchen wall holding open pantry/toaster station, extra-deep drawers, AND the fridge! In the basement the duct came straight off the air handler and ran deep and flat against a family room wall where I was able to disguise it with shelving.)

Fingers crossed for you but I truly think you’ll be fine. I bet electricians who specialize in old houses won’t blink!

Ooh Kate, you seem like a FANTASTIC resource. Thank you 🙂

I’m sure you are right! We are starting to make all the electrician appointments now. Admittedly i’m pretty ignorant to what is normal in really old houses. i remember ARCIFORM saying that some electricians will do this and others won’t. I think its a case of me simply not knowing how typical the ask is. stay tuned but thanks for the insight. I’ll push to fish 🙂

Oh yes that is a good idea! I’m open to prompting them to prompt me, LOL. and thanks for reading and all your support 🙂

Annie, I just replied to another comment at great length with wiring thoughts but I’ve had one house with circa 1914 horsehair plaster/lathe walls completely rewired from top to bottom, as well as doing extensive renovation (multiple rooms gutted but lots without opening walls) in our current 1892 home. I’ve learned a LOT of lessons and am happy to share if you have specific concerns!

I actually thought I misread something in the post, because fishing wires is so standard in my fairly extensive experience with old house renovation! (Though I have learned the hard and expensive way that it is way cheaper and easier to cut bigger holes and then repair the plaster vs. rewiring a whole house through minimal holes!)

From what I see in, for example, the pictures of the kitchen wall with the exposed studs on the right and the horizontal paneling on the left, the main issue will be insulation (you may have to blow in through those weird holes they drill from outside once everything is closed up); wiring looks to me like it would be SUPER easy since the bays between the studs aren’t even closed up on top! In your case, though, I would be shocked if the electrician isn’t willing to work with a few removed panels. Personally I would never have the electrician do the removal, though! Your carpenter will be waaayyyy better at removing the pieces in a way that will make it easier for them to replace them later. Have the electrician indicate which panels are most in their way and you can carefully label/remove/store them.

If you’re planning to paint the paneling there’s even more wiggle room; we just installed new lights in the paneled ceiling in our basement, and when we patch in where the old lights are, replace the piece of tongue & groove we slipped out for the wiring, and paint it all, you won’t be able to tell at all.

Anyway, conduits may have a certain rustic charm that you want to play up for this project! But I certainly wouldn’t go to far down the road with trying to figure it out until you’ve had a couple electricians with old house work come in and take a look.

I’m glad you kept the shelves, and I know you’ll love having that patina to add back in later! I was able to reuse some old open shelves in a weird nook in my bedroom within the built-ins we eventually added, and they make me so happy.

Really appreciate you holding the line on AI! Love to see you normalizing doing the thinking yourself, and if readers want to see more, they can always comment and ask for that!