Bathrooms and Hallways

Once we removed the ceilings from the large combined space of the living room, dining room and kitchen, we noticed that the bathroom ceiling seemed really low by comparison. It was kind of surprising, since we have been living in the this house for more than a year, that no one ever noticed the discrepancy in ceiling heights.

Opening up the ceiling gave us more than an extra 18 inches in height - it also allowed us to see the piping for the upstairs bathroom. We saw a really large open corridor all the way to the ceiling upstairs. We weren't sure what it was at first. However, removing the two cupboard added to the upper bathroom gave us access to the upstairs pipes and enabled us to see the space more fully. We found more than 10 square feet of space that was not being used effectively in the upper bathroom. We could see the original studs and the lines for the lathe and plaster, so we know the old bathroom was at least 10 square feet larger. Of course, the upstairs contains more work - but that is for another day (or more likely, another year).

Once we removed the ceiling from the downstairs bathroom, we began to review the wall lines around the chimney between the dining room and kitchen.

The chimney is actually the square block area behind the light switch plate that you see on the left in the picture above.

First, Daddy and DJ broke out an exploratory section, just to see exactly what we were working with. We weren't sure if this funny angle was original to the house or not. During discussions with previous residents, they never really seemed to know what I was referring to; now we know why. This part of the house was significantly modified. We are not sure why, but we guess it was to make the kitchen about 3 feet wider. Since historical accuracy is more important to us, we are attempting to put it back to the way it originally was. Down came the walls!

So, you might be wondering how we determine if something was original or added later? In this case, it was actually quite easy. They had filled the space with their garbage - new drywall scraps, McDonald's containers, etc. We were like, "really"? It just seemed so wrong to us that this what the flippers used the space for. All of that had to be cleaned out first.

With DJ's strong muscles, it didn't take too long for the "men" to get the wall down. Once the drywall was broken off, it was time to remove the screws. Good thing he has his own power drill to make short work of those screws, too!

He is so "helpful"! Once everything was torn down, we saw that we made the right decision. We could see the original base moulding and chair rails still attached to the chimney. We also found some wonderful colors in the plaster. There is still a lot of work to do, but we have definitely made some progress today. Thank you DJ for all your hard work!