Mi Casa: The Great Room
This room is marked on the floor plan as "The Great Room", although when you really consider it's size it's not overly huge. The end of it was covered off with this hideous wall that was terribly constructed, and we had some large furniture that had to go up this incredibly creepy staircase that was tucked in this tiny hallway - so we decided this wall had to go.
Unfortunately, the wall was holding up a temporarily-lowered ceiling, so not all the wall could go, but we smashed all the sheetrock off one side, and the cardboard off the other (that's right, cardboard), and removed two of the studs so we could get the furniture up. When we took out the wall, we revealed this amazing staircase that is probably original to the house. The entire thing is woodworked beyond belief, and it's in great shape considering the beating it's taken. Some Old English will make it look brand new again, although we will have to remove the hideous towel racks screwed to the underbody of it first.
The room currently houses the TV, a spare matress, and a bunch of boxes, but eventually it'll make a fantastic theatre/video game room, with the staircase being the brilliant centerpiece at the other end of it. I'll get some pictures up soon, and be adding to this page as we do stuff to it.
Updated: 2005-10-09
We tore out the faux ceiling and the rest of the wall, because the ceiling was going to fall down. It was so terribly constructed, it's unbelievable. Below you can see the room in various states of demolition. Note the redneck construction practices in picture #2.
Figure #1
Figure #2
Figure #3
There's still a ton of stuff that needs to be done with this room. A lot of lathe+plaster needs repair, various layers of wallpaper need to come down, the carpet needs to come up, and a bunch of other shit. But it's a start, nonetheless. Oh, I got my TV hooked up in here now too, and with the ceiling removed the stereo sounds phenomenal. I can't wait to get some damping material on the walls and ceiling.
Update: Summer, 2007
This summer we tore more out of this room. We put the original arch back, we now have a wood stove/heater which is going in in August. We're still waiting on sheetrock, that shit's expensive. :(
Figure #4