Do you want to build a timber frame home? Those have to be built frame/beams first. My parents have a lakehouse with large wood beams that were installed after the sheetrock. The installers had to drill large holes through the beams and attach them to the structure. They plugged the holes. They look nice also. My personal taste is to stay away from faux beams (and rocks). Not having priced our beams any other way, I don't know how cost compare. I do know a true timber frame home is not inexpensive. We have beams that are structural. They were installed during construction prior to the roof, sheet rock, etc being installed. During: The kitchen beams were installed the same way: Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen pictures

NCAMY: Try a coffered ceiling approach. Here's a link to a house in N. Michigan that we used as inspiration for our recently finished Craftsman home. Denise Here is a link that might be useful:

You wrote: "the ones going across the old ceiling (vs. yanking them out), " What you wrote stood my hair on end! It is very likely you can not remove the horizontal timbers without your house's structure being compromised. Those beams are most likely doing a whole lot more than just supporting the ceiling and the attic floor. They are connecting the sides of your house. Before you even think of this, please hire an architect or structural engineer to assess it. Given the age of your house (1840) and location it seems highly likely your house is a timberframe structure. Those horizontal beams are ESSENTIAL in timberframe houses! The lower ceilings in older houses are one the characteristics of the style. You can expose the beams, but not remove them. After they are exposed you could cover them, but it would be a lot of work. In buildings the age of yours they might be hand hewn, and attractive, but rough. Many people find the old timber look very appealing as they shown the hand-made nature of the structure. The other issue is that once you have a room with such a tall ceiling (going up to the roof rafters) you will kake it very hard to keep warm at "ground level" as all your heated air will go up, far above your head. Even with good roof insulation (can be done, but does present some other technical issues) keeping warm downstairs will be a challenge, unless you have something like radiant heat in the floor. When the house was built, and every bit of heat was from logs cut, hauled, split, stacked and loaded, by the occupants they knew that lower ceilings were warmer than soaring spaces. MOlly

Thank you all for your responses! The post and beam are a bit different than our house would likely look like...my DH needs visuals that are as close as possible to envision what it will look like. Thanks boxerpups for all of those photos...sheesh, I love those coffered ceilings, which we could do those! A lot of them appear to have drywall with recessed lighting...I think we'd like to keep the open look with the exposed joists/flooring from the attic above. Palimpsest...that is probably exactly what it would look like...but we would definitely paint to make it lighter. Where would the wiring for those pendants go? I would assume you'd run some sort of conduit up behind the beams? Thanks again so much!