We are salvaging the clawfoot! Well, we were absolutely victims of knowing when to say when. ;-) Originally we intended to just do a new kitchen and bath, and paint. it ended up being a total gut because: The walls upstairs were the original horsehair plaster and were in realllllly rough shape. They were wallpapered, and peeling off the wallpaper also took of gigantic hunks of the plaster. The parts that weren't wallpapered that were still original (mainly the stairway and upstairs foyer) were so wavy and poorly patched over the years, off the lath, cracked, etc etc that it didn't seem worth saving. The downstairs was not wallpapered but some was horsehair, some wasn't, and what was horsehair was in the same rough shape. So at the least it looked like we were taking down the horsehair and re-plastering. Then it was discovered that we still had alot of knob-and-tube in use, which almost cost us our homeowner's insurance. We had to remove that. When we started to do 1 room, it was discovered that a single plug in the dining room had been spliced for lights literally all over the house. Some in the basement, some upstairs. It was crazy. Further digging found the electrical was just crap and really unsafe. So, we thought, we're taking down the plaster, the walls are gonna be open, we'll rewire...what else should be do? It had no insulation. We could have left the walls and blown in insulation, but that isn't nearly as efficient as batting or foam. We were adding a half bath downstairs (actually, the whole renovation revolved around working in this half bath. The house is only 2 br 1 ba now, and that was tough when guests came, or our elderly parents came as they could not manage the treacherous staircase without help.) The plumbing was also a mess. You should have seen it in the basement - 150 years of plumbing technology crammed together. Again, since the walls would be open.... we wanted to add AC. We are doing the high pressure mini duct system - again, since the walls were down, so much easier. ;-) The adding of the bath and replacing the staircase with something safe (and code) changed enabled changes to the upstairs layout to make it more efficient. There was alot of wasted space before, which sucks in a 1200 sq ft house. When we start moving walls, the floors come into question. The floors were in reeeealllly rough shape. The previous owner had large dogs and besides the fact they were 150 years old, they were completely gouged out in places. Other places had large patches (we couldnt' figure out why, some of the patches were in places that made no sense.) They were not tongue and groove, so there were big gaps between the boards (they were 3" pine) which made keeping them clean a nightmare. Between all those things, they really just weren't that nice. So we are replacing them with at least historically accurate (we wish we could afford salvaged wood.) (incidentally when they started the demo it was discovered that the floors upstairs were laid directly over the joists, with no subfloor,which explained their bounciness.) The moldings upstairs were just plain basic flat boards - nothing of character. They will be replaced with something a bit more ornate but not over the top. Downstairs, the living room moldings are gorgeous and they are being saved. We are having them duplicated for the dining room, which had moldings that were OK but not as ornate. The dining room door moldings and others around the house were severely chewed by the aforementioned dogs. The interior doors were in rough shape. there are only 6 in the house. 2 were actually coming apart (cracked badly) and missing pieces of wood (parts of the panels). Perhaps they could have been puttied and glued. 2 were too small. former closet doors that had been sawed down for some reason. the ceilings are 9', it's not like there wasn't room for them. Since all the other moldings were going to be new, we decided to go with new doors that are exact reproductions of the originals. Basically the house needed all new systems, and new plaster (we are doing skim coat) so given that and the fact that what was there wasn't really that nice to begin with, we thought it would be best to start fresh, doing repros, and keeping what little we could. We are trying to be very mindful of doing what would be period, even though things will be new. We hope it won't feel like walking in to a "new" house when we're done. SHEESH that was long. sorry LOL

Hey everyone! I am getting closer! I just posted my finished kitchen over in the kitchen forum. We are still putting everything together and cleaning. Lots and lots of cleaning! I will post more of the house here when we have more finished! Here is a link that might be useful: My finished kitchen and dining room

Thank you all for the nice comments! It feels good to have other people appreciate it too. We love everything and the only decisions we regret are the ones we were talked into by other people at the end of the project and they are all exterior issues: 1. I don't like where the shingle-style siding ends. To me it should be lower. Our contractor talked us out of it. We actually bought extra shingles to fix it, but we haven't done it yet. Still, they all told me, "Give it a month and you won't notice." But you know what? I notice it every single day and it bugs me every single day. 2. The posts and risers on the deck are cedar that is smooth on one side and rough on the other. I wanted to use the smooth side out but everyone told me "No one does that. I've never heard of that," so we put the rough side out. Huge mistake. Dog hair sticks to it like glue. It's a total pain. 3. There was a miscommunication on the back stairs. We wanted an extra step to lower the rise a little for our aging dogs, but two steps were added so the rise is REALLY short and now the dogs hate it even more. Fail.

I can only tell you my experience. We had Douglas fir ceilings and floors and walls in our lakehouse and I loved them but, through the years, I got tired of a darker look so we painted the ceilings white. My husband was horrified that I wanted to do it but it still read as wood and looked so much better, we went on to paint all the walls too and we love it. They sell pastel transparent paints that will let the wood show through. I don't like it myself but it's a personal taste thing.