Surprise

This room was decorated in the 1970's with wood paneling and foam ceiling tiles.  Then a serious smoker lived there for decades.  The room was dark, filled with nicotine and tar stains, and seemed to be sloping towards the back of the house. 

Please excuse the fuzziness of this image.  The camera seemed to focus on dust on the lens.  I did not know until I downloaded it.  I'm sure you'll get the idea anyway. 

Our job was to take down the tiles, install drywall on the studs, and paint the entire room.  However, as soon as we took down the tiles, we got our surprise.  The ceiling framing was angled and attached only at the sides of the room, which was approximately 10.5' x 12.5'.  All of the beams were spanning 10' and were not attached anywhere except at the ends.  I could not attach drywall to studs that were not attached to the ceiling.

So, we took down the framing and saw that the paneling did not go to the ceiling.  The homeowner did not want to take down the paneling and the 50's wallpaper behind it, so we had to lower the ceiling.  To get it to take the weight of the drywall, we re-used some of the old framing and attached it to the existing ceiling studs.  This brought it down 1.5 inches, but it was still not enough in a few parts.  So, I put in larger crown molding.

After some heavy duty primer and 2 coats of paint, the room was completely transformed.  It's much brighter, more secure, and 6" higher.