Thanks, again. Its funny to see the competing thoughts in my head expressed by others on this thread: take out the window ... leave the window ... take out the window ... you get the picture. There are a few things about the construction of that window that make me suspect of its originality: poor joinery and patches on the 2 vertical elements, a wonky patch and missing baseboard/stringer on the top stair before the landing (its painted to look like its there, but its not), the back of the stringer is exposed on the lower left corner of the window (look carefully), and the ledge of the window is 3 pieces of wood really badly fitted (the center piece is lower than the others) as if someone was mimicking a ledge, rather than one being properly installed of one piece of wood. On the side of it being original is only one small detail: there is a miter cut into the beam at the top of the "post" on the right side of the window that would be impossible to retro fit. That assumes that the beams are original, which a roof repair guy who dated a woman who lived here in the 50's told me they were not. if the beams are not original, then the beams and window could have been installed at the same time and that miter would have been simple to make. Whew ... yeah, on Sunday mornings i get my coffee and sit on the stairs with a flashlight and "do some cypherin'"

dpriscok, you did not hijack my thread, we are all talking about painting ceilings!!!!! If I inspire someone then that makes me feel good. When I started thinking about drapes in my dining room, I really knew what I wanted. I started shopping around and kept finding the same fabric at different fabric stores. I was at one and got a price and it would have been over $800 per panel. Then I went to another fabric store and got a sample of the same fabric. The lady there then told me that they had panels already made in the back of the store. I paid about $120 per panel and they are lined. I jumped on that!!!!! I bet if you went to your local fabric store/stores you would be able to find drapes already premade.

With the adhesive failing, the only permanant fix is to remove all of the old layers and install new drywall. Yes, it's messy and unpleasant, but once you are done with that job, you are DONE with fixes. Any patchwork type of repair will just involve continually patchwork repairs as the glue continues to fail in other spots.

Thank you thank you thank you. Here on New Year's Day, the kids are napping and I just finished painting the lower half of the dining room in Sage Green. It's perfect! It was refreshing to cover up all the golds and reds and purples and tans,etc., and now that the Sage is there I can't imagine it any other way. It's just right. If my hand didn't feel frozen into position I'd start painting the top in Camouflage. The Living Room is going to be Blond Wood, I think. Painting green in there will feel like too much green, and the Blond Wood sample I put up looks really nice and feels very warm. I never would have come up with any of these colors on my own. Thanks so much to everyone for their excellent feedback and guidance!