No good advice to offer but I think Bronson Pinchot would LOVE your room as is right now. ;) What has that cat found in that hole?

Your floors are lovely.

The cat, Fred, is surveying the space under the stairs. The switchback staircase is in the foyer on the other side of the wall and there is such a huge space under there I think he wants to explore.

Personally, I'm not a fan of exposing brick--it was meant to be covered, especially in formal rooms. This is a modern fad. Save yourself a lot of bother and recover it. You can attach a few laths onto the stack and use those to anchor the drywall...and I assume that the old baseboards covered the gap in the floor?

Cats are so fun--one of my old Siamese used to stare at a spot on my dining room wall...occasionally even reach up to paw at it...drove me nuts thinking there might have been something in there--but my other cat ignored it completely!

This post was edited by columbusguy1 on Mon, Feb 4, 13 at 14:47

You know, somebody else in another thread mentioned that especially since our home is an Italianate, it doesn't lend itself to that "rustic" feel of having the exposed brick. Plus, this is such a narrow little area, it might just look silly. DH thought of running a 1x2 horizontally and attach to studs on either side, then having the 1x2 as anchors for the drywall.

I have 2 cats and 2 dogs, a Yorkie and a Bassett, and all 4 of them can't seem to get enough of checking out everything in there. The cats are so fun to watch. While we were running the shop-vac, my Yorkie just stood behind it and let the air blow over him like he was sticking his head out the car window.

PS, yes the baseboard we removed before tearing down plaster and there is a piece that goes right back into that spot.

Just hire a plasterer. The room is ready for the scratch coat.
Casey

Can you open up and use the space under the stairs? Mine holds the hot water heater. But then we need every inch of storage we can find.

I think hiring a plasterer might be more expensive than buying the drywall ;), but if budget allowed, I would in a second since plaster is the better finish of the two, and seeing how old the house is, most likely a better choice for insulating.

Proabably won't open up under the stairs, at least not from the dining room side. It has a huge hole cut in the floor, and then a vent in the wall on the foyer side, so that is the air intake for when the central air was installed. If we ever do open it, it will be from the foyer side and would make a neat little nook and make the switchback staircase appear more freestanding, but that is a ways off, if at all. My DH will be teasing me about the "wallpaper removal" for awhile I think!

Just FYI an example of a visible chimney. This one rises through our kitchen counter. It maybe works better visually with tile in a kitchen than it would with just drywall in a living or dining room. My husband fitted the drywall to the side of the chimney on the left quite well; can't remember how he did it, probably with a paper pattern, and filled with a bit of plaster that is now starting to crack out (after 18 years). On the other side the face frame of the cabinet is fitted.

Been there with one project leading to more, but wow, you're fast!

Karin L