Goodbye and Hello

Goodbye nasty ceiling tiles.

Hello vaulted ceiling! (those vertical beams won't be staying...)

Adam and I have been busy (hence the lack of blogging) getting down and dirty in our soon to be dining room. We are so thankful to live with his parents right now who are able to put the kids down and be at home so we can slip away and get some stuff done on the house.

Underneath the ceiling tiles, we found old beadboard ceiling. They came down like toothpicks so there wasn't anything salvageable.

Under the beadboard, there was insulation. The first time Adam and I discovered this, we were not prepared for this and left after 30 minutes with the black lung hacking up and covered with fiberglass shards from the insulation. It was awful. As you can see, I came prepared for the next day.

We enjoy doing this kind of stuff together. Adam likes having me help him even though the other day when he whacked me on accident with a board he admitted it was the first time he's ever heard someone say "owie" on the job. Ha ha.

Often, we take the kids over with us in the evening when we want to check on how progress is coming with the jobs our contractor is taking care of. Soon, Will will be crawling all over this kitchen floor.

Our LVL beams came in to replace the walls we took out. I really want to play these beams up and Adam said they're not able to be stained. So I want to paint them brown to make them look like wooden beams and Adam is skeptical because then they'll just look like I painted them to make them look real wood. I looked up faux painting, but I'm not sure about that. It might look to faux. I'd love some suggestions or any affirmation for anything that I just mentioned. The ceilings are 10 feet high so I figured if they look that bad, they're still high up there and not close up for anyone to notice.

View of the living room, the kitchen (with the ceiling fan) and the dining room with the new vaulted ceiling!

My plan for the fireplace is to cover up as much of that brick with a mantle and clean up the rest. If anyone has any good advice of fireplace/soot cleaners, then do share of what and where to find it. As for the chimney, I'm going to clean that up with a wire brush and air compressor to get all the loose dirt off. As far as sealing is concerned, I've read everything from poly, to evaporated milk (or was it sweetened condensed?) to good ol' regular brick sealer. I don't want anything shiny, but just something to hold all the mortar in place and not end up in my pot of chili.