The office is paneling-free!

After who-knows-how-long of little bits of work on the office, the walls are finally liberated of paneling. What this really means is that I have found the motivation to work on it again. It's also brought on another case of severe loathing for the previous owner who put up the paneling to begin with. These are the same folks who made 3 perfectly usable closets into 2 dysfunctional closets. And messed up the ductwork. If not for all the holes they put into the walls by putting up furring strips with 5" nails, creating closet doors where none should be, and nailing up paneling, and carving holes in the walls for the "improved" ductwork, the walls and ceilings would have only a few cracks instead of needing major cosmetic surgery. I just don't get it.

The way it looks now, we're going to need to replace most of one of the walls with drywall. We re going to put in a large drywall "patch" anyways to re-enclose the hall closet. After tearing out the paneling and looking at the crumbling plaster, I think it might just be best to remove it. There's water damage from floor to ceiling, probably from leaking around the chimney. Where they carved the doorway for the bedroom closet/hall closet combo, the plaster is just barely hanging on.

We're also going to remove some more plaster from another wall to expand the closet opening. I'm having qualms about it, but the closet will be much more functional and accessible if we do this. Otherwise, it'll essentially be a 2' deep walk-in closet. It just stinks, because that's one of the least damaged walls, and I'll be tearing it out...