Hi all,

I recently bought a house built in 1935 and I'm just starting to get
to some renovations. One of the previous owners had build a small
extension on the front of the house, creating a 4' x 8' entry
vestibule. Three of the vestibule walls are external, and the fourth
is the wall bordering our living room - this used to be the original
front of the house. The vestibule was finished with drywall, and there
was a bunch of water damage in one of the corners (from an old, since-
repaired leak) so we've decided to gut it and re-do.

When I removed the drywall from the wall that borders the living room,
I found that the original wood shingles were still there - no furring
strips or anything installed - the drywall was just nailed right into
the shingles. There is even a hole where the original front door light
was hung - wasn't patched or anything!

Anyway, wondering how best to address this without turning this into
an impossible project. My instinct tells me to remove the old shingles
and then do the drywall, using furring strips or framing out a tad if
I need to make up for the thickness of the shingles. Is rocking over
shingles like that an acceptable building practice? If it is, screw
it, I'll save myself a bunch of work and go to town!

My worry with removing the shingles - What about the other walls of
the vestibule? I imagine the corners are attached to the shingles
somehow - how to remove the shingles when they are attached to the
other walls?

You can see pictures of what I'm talking about at

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/IMG_1213.jpg
http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w...IMG_1214-1.jpg

Here's the (external) wall to the right of the shingles - check out
the wallpaper!!
http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w...p/IMG_1208.jpg

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!