We had some ugly paneling in our last home and it was in my office. The problem with paneling is that it moves with humidity, heat and cold. I had my plasterer fill in the cracks and sand and then the man I hired to wallpaper put some kind of fabric-like material that was similar to interfacing that you use in sewing and then wallpapered over this. It worked out great and we lived there for 12 years with no problems. But there might be something new on the market now that is less labor intensive.

That entry is absolutely exquisite! Whatever you do, keep that space the way it is. I do enjoy seeing well preserved specimens of high end mid century interiors. I agree with others about living in the house for a while before you do anything. We bought a mostly unadulterated Victorian, and we had fantasies of getting a bunch of stuff done before moving in (5 months from close to move in), but ended up only refinishing some floors (low impact change). Now I'm super glad we didn't try to do anything - we're getting a sense of how we live in this house (it turns out we use the butler stairs A LOT, and my husband had wanted to tear them out!) and a sense of the small things that wouldn't have even occurred to us before we'd spent time living here, like the fact that we need to add a second ceiling light at the far end of the hall, that we need some more electrical outlets in the dining room, etc.

I am not a lover of pannelling except for maybe real wood in library type setting. I think it would be best to remove the pannelling and do drywall all over where it is now. I also think waiting to do much is a good idea in a new home, you need to wait to see how the spaces function for you before doing anything major and that includes painting. BTW painter panels always look like painted panels and IMO not an attractive look . I think the flooring and the ceilings need a big amount of work so just spend some time living there and seeing how it works . I will sya 70s materials were not great so to keep anyo of them to honor the ers would not be at the top of my list. Waht I see in your ideas books is not hwta this space is right now so spend the next 3 months planning what needs doing .

Thanks for all of these thoughts. Truly. After trying to look at his "completion" list and having knots in my stomach all night thinking about talking to him the next day, we had a very brief and tense discussion this morning. He said he would entertain the cost of doing the Johnson door kit, but his labor to install would be at my cost. I would also have to buy the kit and figure out how it would work in our situation, space wise. And I would still have to pay him for the framing he did. I told him I would think about it, and then called Johnson to see which kit would work. Jeffrey R. Grenz is right, there is a 6 week lead time now. But that's not the worst part. The guy on the phone recommended using the 2000 series, and said for a 9' ceiling, the door can't be 104". The tallest it can be is 101.25". Their header and track combined is 6.75" tall. He said we'd have to cut 2.75" off the door, and the door company had originally said they don't recommend cutting more than 1.5" off the bottom of the door. I don't know if we can also cut 1.25" off the top to make up the difference. AND our crown is only 3.75". We would have needed 6.75" crown to make this work. I guess the cabinet guy could add trim below the crown at the door opening. Hopefully that won't look weird. In any case, I had a call for work so couldn't ask questions about the taller 1500 series and if that header is also huge. I'll have to call back later to find out. Maybe we can just use their track system, attach it to the ceiling joist (which is what I think he has done) and put up the steel studs for rigidity, but it seems from what Bruce says, the structure is really in the header. I don't know what to do. All of this could have been avoided if our contractor had given this any real thought before all of this started. And he had almost 2 months! He gave us a bunch of wrong information (how wide the wall would be, how tall the door should be). In fact, he had told me to order the door taller to be on the safe side, because he could always shave it down but not make it taller. Ugh. It's so overwhelming when you're trying to figure out things in an area in which you have no knowledge, and your "expert" (ie. our contractor) is basically useless or absolves himself of any responsibility. Which is why we are so grateful for this tremendous community, or else we would be truly lost.