Center room ceiling: Quick update

Last we shared an update on the center room ceiling, the lower drywall ceiling had come down and much of the plaster had been removed as well. Still remaining, however, were the lower-ceiling beams, most of the laths (the supporting strips of wood that hold up the plaster) and the edges of the plaster ceiling. 

While Sarah has been working on pulling up the kitchen flooring, Justin has been working on getting the remainder of the center room ceiling components down. 

Removing the remaining plaster and all the laths was a big priority because without having those materials out of the way, it would be impossible to put up the new ceiling we ultimately plan to install. Working alternately while standing on ladders/the lower-ceiling beams and from up in the attic, Justin finished off this dusty work in recent months. 

Justin took great care in sawing the laths at the edges of the room — particularly on the side of the white room — because while this particular plaster ceiling needed to come out, not all of the 12-foot ceilings do, and some of the laths span multiple rooms. His care was evident in the results: A truly minute amount of dust came down in the white room but all remained happily intact.

While we initially contemplated leaving the lower-ceiling beams up, we ultimately decided to remove them. A number had sustained some water damage when the roof leaked, and we also concluded that installing the drywall ceiling when the time comes for that would be far more difficult if we had to negotiate around a series of (perhaps aesthetically interesting but functionally unnecessary) beams. 

And now for the photos! 

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Weirdly, totally removing the lower-ceiling beams makes the room feel smaller. We think that something about its height-to-floor-space ratio (in which it’s now so much taller than it is wide or long, especially given that you can see straight into the attic and up to the underside of the roof) is having that effect.

With the ceiling now fully open, we are also going to take this opportunity to update some things in the attic. Currently in progress is the removal of the existing insulation that sustained water damage from the roof leak, too, and also accumulated a boatload of detritus during the chimney demolition and roof replacement processes. We figure there will be no more convenient occasion for removing materials we wish to be rid of or for hoisting materials we want to add than during the time that there is a massive hole in the floor of the attic, so we are taking advantage of it. This intermediate project will delay the ceiling installation, but for a good cause!

For now, we’ll leave you with this panorama looking up: