Hello everyone,

I have not been posting much because I have been tied up with house
renovations.

My old house (remember the white kitchen cabinets) sold in less than a day,
so I guess no one minded the inconsistent reveal from the scribe strip I put
up.

I had about 1 week to enjoy the old house before I started on the new one.
The renovations here are extensive (to say the least!).

This was a perfectly good house in move in condition, that is, if you have
70's taste. Nice wall paper and shag carpet everywhere. Very little had been
done to this house since it was built in 1975, exactly what I was looking
for. The main floor was broken up into little rooms, a hallway, kitchen,
living and dining room with a den behind the garage.

Katarina and I totally demolished the main floor. We took out two 20 yard
dumpsters. All the interior walls on the main floor, all the old flooring
and 95% of the cabinetry throughout the house.

This is what it looked like after a little demo,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/demoing1.jpg

Two temporary walls were built in place to support the second floor as the
main load bearing wall was removed,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/beamin.jpg

The beam is huge. In order for it to be flush mounted, it had a flange
welded onto the bottom of it to carry the second floor joists that used to
rest on a 2x6 wall that also housed the all the air supplies and returns
from the second floor.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/bigbeam.jpg

All the electrical from the interior walls has been moved or removed. The
HVAC ducts have been rerouted to the outside walls and tucked into a soffit
that runs around the main open room.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit1.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit2.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit3.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit4.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit5.jpg


My main question is how to deal with this soffit for paint and "orange peel"
knocked down spray on texturing.

Different scenarios,

1) Treat the entire soffit as the ceiling and texture the side and bottom of
it, paint the entire soffit white like the ceiling.

2) Texture just the bottom of the soffit, paint it white like the ceiling
and paint vertical portion the same colour as the body of the room.

3) No texture on the soffit at all, paint the entire soffit the same colour
as the room.

Being the wood guy I am, I would like to add some crown detail, but I don't
know where or even if I should.

The floor and new staircase with be Jatoba. The kitchen cabinets will be
cherry, you can see the rough in for the island beside the dishwasher. There
are lots of new pot lights and rough ins for a fixture above the
kitchen/dining table (in front of the new sliding door) and pendants above
the island.

What are your ideas?

Thank you,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him