Monday, November 30, 2015

Before and...not-so-before part 2

In case you missed Before and Not-So-Before, the renovation of our house is crawling along at a snail's pace.  So as much as I would love to share a "before-and-after" story, the best I've got is "before-and-not-so-before."

Today's feature:  the central hallway. 


Before:  1960's wood paneling all the way up and down, with a strip of trim about a foot down from the ceiling.  The central hallway connects both bedrooms and the dining room to the bathroom.  By way of orientation, the telephone nook is adjacent to the dining room door.  The bathroom is across the hall from the telephone nook.  The bedrooms are at either end.

Mom and Dad took down the ceiling tiles, but they saved me all the staples in the hallway. Believe me...I was thrilled.


Now...I know many folks would want to open this up because it is pretty narrow.  That's not an option for us for a couple reasons.  First, since this is not going to be a full-time residence, our goal is to preserve original features even if they aren't necessarily what is "hip" by today's standards (for example, who has heard of the drinking game where you take a shot anytime someone says "open floor plan" during an episode of House Hunters?").  Second, this appears to be a load-bearing wall.  All of the rafters in the ceiling meet at a beam in the attic that runs the length of this hallway.  


Because the hallway is narrower, you get a better sense of just how tall the ceilings are.


 Pulling the trim and the paneling off of the wall was relatively quick and painless.  The trim pulled off in long strips with just a little assistance from my handy seven-function tool.  (As an aside, I've never been able to figure out why it's called a seven-function tool.  I have only counted up to 3 or 4 functions.  If anyone knows all seven, please share with the rest of the class.)


Pulling off the paneling was seriously gratifying because most of the time it came down in large sheets.  Around the moldings and trim it got a little frustrating, however.


It took just a few hours to remove all the wallboard and clean up.  


I did not have enough steam at the end of the day to remove the paper backing that was behind the paneling.  But Mom and Dad came back on another day and finished it up.

 Not-so-before:


That's all from Wisteria Bend for now.

Christy


1 comment: