The bookcase and Hawaii picture are now gone and we can pass into the living room. Unfortunately the pocket doors are missing, but replacements are being sought. Below are "before" pictures of the living room. There are double dropped ceilings and avocado green wall to wall carpeting.

Click on the picture for a larger image.

The following pictures were taken during the renovation. The first shows the other side of the Hawaii picture seen in the foyer. A bookcase had been constructed on the livingroom side. The ceiling of the room had a dropped ceiling (seen around the ceiling fan). Above that, furring strips had been stapled to the plaster and blocks of ceiling tile stapled to them. That dark brown color on the ceiling was the last of several layers of wallpaper.

While a large section of the original plaster ceiling was intact, there were many areas that had been cut out, and when the house was rewired some time ago, the electrician ran the new wiring below the original ceiling. Ultimately, the old plaster could not be saved, and it had to come down. I had a plasterer do this dirty job. The drywall put up has a fairly thick layer of plaster skimcoated over it. Shown are samples of the old layers of wallpaper pulled off the ceiling. Lastly, the walls being painted after the old wallpaper was stripped off. The trim molding was repositioned at the original 15" from the ceiling.

Time has gone by and the living room is almost done. The ceiling plaster has been redone, the woodwork and floors refinished, and the walls painted and a Bradbury and Bradbury freize papered above the molding. I finally found an antique light fixture that I liked, that had been replated and rewired. Due to nearby ongoing renovation, all of the little decorative items are put away for now. The grandfather clock shown was my first major woodworking project.