I would consider a bit of lime/milk wash paint to help even out the appearance and leave it.

NO POLY........the resins in the poly will turn yellow over time.

Why poly? I'd sand them a bit, just to get rid of any flaky/chippy paint (I hope you've been wearing a mask. Is that lead paint?) and then leave as is, including the beams. Then, on the walls, I'd plaster thin bricks. Gorgeous.

beverly27 - Yes, I thought about the yellowing. I don't know that I want to do another lime wash as that's what's cracking & peeling now. I planned on doing a waterbased clearcoat.

Tibbrix - No there is no lead. It's 150+ year old lime wash.

Believe me, I have scraped, and scraped. It reminds me of drywall mud. But if I tap on a beam with a pole, more white dust comes down from where I have scraped. I need to do something to seal it, or whatever is left will keep flaking

I think some of the debris could be coming from upstairs. We plan to put down 3/4 plywood up there so that should help.

If you want to seal it, use a water based poly such as Minwax Polycrylic. It won't yellow over time.

Could be completely wrong, but it appears as if the walls only go up to the joists (beams). Would you have a gap above the walls and no insulation in the walls? Not sure how to correct the problem without tearing out the walls and insulating and then replacing. I would concentrate on making the house sealed tighter. You also would have no insulation in the ceiling between floors, even if you lay plywood upstairs. I'm certainly no carpenter, but even though it would look kind of cool, some real thought needs to be put into the viability of this plan. Is your husband skilled in construction? Best wishes on what looks like an exciting project.

Have you heard of Zinsser Peel Stop ?
I've only read about it.
Maybe here :)
Google around and see if it fits your needs..

I would ask on the woodworking forum...there seem to be some experts there who certainly helped me when I had wood/stain related questions...

voila - No the current framed walls do not go up thru the joists but we will address that. Certainly we plan to insulate before hanging drywall. And we don't want insulation between the floors.

forboystoo - No I have not heard of Peel Stop, but I will look into it.

AnnieDeighnaugh - Good Suggestion. I have never been in that forum. I am usually in Kitchens & Baths and Buying & Selling :)

Try the Old House forum, too.

What kind of room is above this room? I'm thinking noise factor.

I had the same thought as gracie01...the noise factor. With no insulation and plywood on top, I think the noise and cold floors would be a factor.

Very good point Gracie. I recently moved my desk to the ladies parlor directly below where it was. My son and I ripped out the carpet and padding getting it ready for wood floors and moved two recliners and an area rug in there for him and his son to use as their living room until we find the right wood flooring. I swear I've about had a dozen or so heart attacks from the sudden noises from above my head. Between our six year old grandson bouncing around and the sound of the old recliner when it's released it's quite noisy.

If you think the dust could be sifting down from above, you might want to use an air compressor from above and blow out as much as you can before you add a subfloor to the 2nd floor.

I like the way it looks scraped, but make sure it's something you want to look at all the time.

Upstairs will be two bedrooms for my granchildren (4 & 7). We will be renting the house to my DD & SIL. So "I" don't have to worry about the noise :) And they may appreciate hearing the pitter patter of little feet that are supposed to be quiet in bed.

But seriously, we have owned A LOT of houses, and I have NEVER had one that had insulation between the 1st and 2nd floor. And I am not sure how not having insulation in the ceiling would make the floors cold upstairs? Seems like it would be the opposite.

Good idea marti8a about the compressed air. To be fair there is still a lot of dust up there too from tearing down some walls etc. A good vacuuming should cut down on a lot of that.

My daughter over today and said she really likes the idea of leaving the planks unpainted... Zinsser makes a clear Peel Stop which could be a good choice, because it could be painted over later.

UPDATE:

I having finished the ceiling. I found out one of our new neighbors is a professional drywall finisher - my new best friend :) He did a GREAT job finishing the drywall around the beams. It turned out much better than I could have done myself, and in a fraction of the time. We painted the walls SW Ancient Marble (a muted green)

And yes, some people will think we are nuts, but we left the knobs up there too.

We left one of the beams exposed, mainly because I like the look of the tenon on the end. And I love to show it to people and show them how that one tenon was holding up almost half of the second floor (phew.. not anymore!)

It was A LOT of work to scrape and paint the ceiling, but it was well worth it.

Wow! It was a lot of work for sure, but it looks great. You definitely did the right thing. Well done!

Thanks for the update, Barb -- it's stunning!!!

It looks fantasticâ¦and I would have thought you were nuts if you'd taken the knob off! From one rustic/barn-y lovin' gal to anotherâ¦.

What an amazing transformation Barb! I love it!

Did you seal it with anything to prevent flaking?

Tibbrix - I had one guy say "Shame you can't leave the ceiling exposed", and when I replied that we were he said "what about all the holes" meaning the holes in the beams where they ran the wires. I said "they add character":.

Now I need to figure out what type of light fixture to put up. Clearly it needs to be rustic Would love to find something that looks like a old kerosene lantern.

mclarke - Yes, we painted the boards with RXBond primer. It did a good job of covering up the leftover whitewash and no more dust falling down. We painted the beams with regular primer etc..

It's a living room? I wouldn't put up any light fixture on the ceiling but rather get a pair of sconces, put on a dimmer just inside the entry door, to put on the wall and outfit the rest of the room with an eclectic mix of rustic lamps.

Here is a kerosene lamp sconce

Or reflector sconces, like this one. I have two (brass), which came with the house when I bought it, above the fireplace and LOVE them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Andrew Reflector Sconce

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Fri, Aug 15, 14 at 21:05

Barb, here is a pic of my LR, with the ceiling similar to yours and the reflector sconces above the FP.

Well yes, it's a living room, but won't really be mine (at least for a while). Our daughter and her family are going to be living there. Your ceiling is beautiful.

Funny thing is when we started on the house, I thought all we would need to do on this room would be to shampoo the wall to wall carpet. Two months later, there is a new set of stairs, the exposed ceiling, new drywall, and an exposed log wall.

Wire is already run for a light fixture, and we plan to cover it with a wire cover painted to match the beams.

Looks good! I just wanted to comment on this:

But seriously, we have owned A LOT of houses, and I have NEVER had one that had insulation between the 1st and 2nd floor. And I am not sure how not having insulation in the ceiling would make the floors cold upstairs? Seems like it would be the opposite.

Most houses don't have insulation between the first and second floors. When we ripped the carpets out of my office above the family room, it got really loud. DH complained he was trying to watch TV and he could hear my chair rolling on the bare laminate floor. We were doing other family room renos, so we added insulation specifically for that reason. It will probably be a kid's room in the future, so I like the idea that you can't hear the TV from that room now. But it's unique.

And yes, unless your living room is cold, the lack of insulation in the floor is not going to make the bedrooms cold. If you've got a fireplace or other heat source in the living room, the lack of insulation will allow that heat to move up into the bedroom.