But I did see that they painted over perfectly good preexisting hardwood and laid down a very ugly blue carpet, so it's not likely.

There was a definite reason why this hallway was not included in the real estate listing. Walking through this part of the house felt suffocating. I instinctively kept ducking my head every time I took the steps even though there was more than enough headway. I tried taking pictures with my camera but I could not get enough light. Did I mention that there were absolutely no light fixtures when we bought the house? My little brother was able to temporarily install these cordless light fixtures so that we could work past four in the afternoon.