Monday Night Fever

DIALOGUE

[Noel has been staring at the ceiling in the hall for ten minutes]

Ayse: What were you just staring at?

Noel: Would it be OK if I drilled some holes in the hall ceiling so we could take a look around? It might make it drafty.

Ayse: Sure. If it's drafty we can tape it up.

Noel: I'm going to get the hole saw.

Ayse: You mean right NOW? It's eleven thirty!

Noel: I just have to know what's under there.

And sure enough...

Now, we've been curious about what's under the dropped ceiling in the hall for ages. The one in the bathroom was full of mold. So we assumed this was covering up some bad water damage. Otherwise, why would you drop the ceiling 18"?

But check it out:

That's looking through the hole towards the top of the front door. The piece of wooden molding there is the molding around the door. Noel said that it looked like they'd started to strip it and given up, hence the weird two-tone colours.

The most notable thing is that in the one place where we expected water damage (right near where the porch roof was leaking), there was none. In fact, it looks pretty nice up there.

The wallpaper that was textured and painted over in the hall is intact (this is likely to be from the 50's, not Victorian).

And there's even a plaster ceiling medallion hidden up in there. Which gives me great hopes for the possibility of another original ceiling medallion in the dining room. (If it's missing, I'll just have one of the parlour medallions copied.)

(Check out the awesome wiring job on our hall light. Doesn't that quality work make you sleep well at night? I think I'll be more careful about turning that light off when it's not absolutely critical.)

As Noel put away the flashlight, he turned to me and said, "That ceiling's coming down, sooner than later." And I agree. So add that to our Springtime demolition plans, I guess.

Technorati Tags: demolition, electrical work, plaster, renovations, victorians, wallpaper, woodwork

posted by ayse on 01/27/09