Another Cottage Project: Raising the Hallway Ceiling

We had a very productive (albeit messy, hot, and exhausting ) weekend here at our Twice Remembered Cottage. We got started with our hallway project! Our hall is very long and what made it very unappealing to me was it's extremely low ceiling. I'm only about 5'5" and I could literally touch the ceiling without much effort. It has long been our goal to someday raise the ceiling there, which I hoped would visually open up the narrow space a bit. This weekend, we did just that.

So here is where we started - our very gloomy and sometimes scary hallway. We've gone ahead and replaced all the hollow core doors with solid pine doors except for that one there on the right...we're working in that particular room (expanding a closet) and have waited to put up the door there until we're ready to also put up the new closet door. Anyway, can you see how close the ceiling is to the top of doors? There is absolutely no room for the beefy 5 inch wide door trim I want to add around the doors - and no room for crown moulding and a pine plank ceiling either. Clearly, the ceiling needed to be raised.



The first cut... Who knew cutting through popcorn could be so easy and exciting?




There's no going back now!




This photo reveals the air conditioning duct work! This would have been a problem, but don't worry... this is unused duct work from the old original air conditioning system installed 30 years ago. A new system (with duct work under our floor) was added several years back and the old one remained to fossilize in our ceiling, I suppose. But this explains why the ceiling was so low to begin with. Fortunately hubby had crawled into the attic to investigate well before we decided to tackle this project:)



I thought I'd take a photo of the "big mess" being created already. But compared to what was to come, this was nothing!



Within minutes, the old drywall was completely removed from the ceiling and we could get a good view of the old metal monster that was hiding above.... I had to help hubs remove the duct work and I was so afraid it was going to fall on my head! I had to hold one end as I stood on a ladder while hubs unscrewed it from the center and other end. Talk about scary!





Our first good view of our new ceiling height! Whew, it sure was dirty up there!



Another whole foot added to the ceiling height - from 7 feet to 8 feet just like that!





The metal monster wasn't so intimidating when it wasn't hanging by a few screws above my head.



Now to begin ripping out the hall walls...




See what I meant about it getting messier?



A good friend came by and helped hubs hang the drywall for the new ceiling. I tried but have absolutely no upper body strength and proved to be a pretty puny and clumsy helper. Hubs forgot to cut the hole for the light but he can go back and do that. I'm thinking about hanging an old fashioned baby chandelier, but hubs isn't thrilled. I think it will grow on him;)



I love the results so far - the hall really feels so much more spacious now! I really can't wait to add our plank ceilings and crown moulding, tall white beadboard, wide door trim (with maybe a nifty antique metal number above each door..."Where is your bathroom?" ...."Oh, it's down the hall, Room 2."), and of course, our long awaited wood flooring. But this is where we leave of for now because today, Monday, it's business as usual for hubs and his real job. We'll save the walls for another free weekend. I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our most recent cottage transformation project!