Moonkat, wow, it looks like you're making just great headway. I hope you're not overdoing it as I know overhead work is hard on you, especially on the neck. Ouch! If you have one of those seed-filled u-shaped neck pillows, you can put it in the microwave (for 1-2 mins, no more) just before bed and fall asleep with it wrapped around your neck. Yum. I do that every night all winter long. I'm so happy you got a sander you really like. The right tools make a huge difference to getting the job done -- or even wanting to. Hmmm... I ordered on the 26th, and the due date is "January 30, 2009 - February 4, 2009." I ordered through amazon.com but it's coming from the same place yours did. I am eager to see it - lol. ~~ Laurie, yes you can buy a kit (from http://www.elitetrimworks.com/home.php) but I was just doing my own thing and sort of copying the photo. I have a chop saw and I really like it, though I'm super careful with it because it could take off a finger in a blink. ~~ Helene, oh you did wallpaper over it. I am hoping after my mudding and sanding that my walls will be fine under the wallpaper. But I don't think they're good enough to do that other kind of panelling with the little boxes, at least not yet. The longer wall got super torn up from removing those boards. I like the idea of doing it horizontally. that could save time, too. I'll keep it in mind. ~~ Well, everyone, I am trying to decide if I can make the walls look good enough with the beadboard wallpaper, since the other way is so much work and I'm wearing out. What do you think? If you had a split entry, would you do beadboard panelling on the walls? Or opt for something more formal at your entry?

GreenDesigns, I have a few issues with your post, so I'm going to take the liberty of quoting parts of it below, to better respond to them individually. GreenDesigns: "A consumer grade electric range is not a gas range. Its very rare for any range, electric or gas, to have 0 as the clearance needs. RTFM." I read the 'F' manufacturer's installation instructions for my consumer grade GE electric range, as posted on the GE website, and quoted above and here: "Electric ranges require 0" side wall spacing above counter height... ...30 inches between the cooktop and bottom of the cabinet above. 0 inches for sides below the cooktop." GreenDesigns: "Placing tile, or stainless, or stone, directly over a wood studded wall without an insulating air gap, is violating the fire code, if it places that wood stud within the prohibited zone for combustibles." Come to think of it, the studs in that wall are metal. And here I aways thought the builders had just been cheaping out. GreenDesigns: "The reason that I mention an insulating air gap, is because that is how a manufacturer’s “suggested”( but required) backguard works to comply with code. There’s a small gap between it and the wall, so it doesn’t directly conduct heat into the wall assembly." While the 0" spacing mention in the manufacturers installation instructions appear to only require that I not somehow place the range inside the wall cavity, the shape of the range prevents me from placing the cooktop directly in contact with the wall. Space being at such a premium in my kitchen, it's not that I haven't (inadvisedly, as I now see) tried. The gap currently stands at 3/8 of an inch. GreenDesigns: "Plastic is extremely flammable." Well, yes and no. That's kind of like saying "Kitchens have extremely little counterspace." While you will seldom find anyone saying the their kitchen has too much counter space, thoughtfully designed mansions generally have more than improvisationally built tiny homes. As for the flammability of plastics, "Nitrate"-type celluloid filmstock fell out of use due to its nasty tendency to burst spontaneously into flame, while diallyl phthalate is suitable for high-temperature use in applications like jet fighter hydraulic systems. Polycarbonate, the polymer used in the greenhouse sheeting I mentioned, is a self-extinguishing material with a range of UL94 Flammability Ratings from V-0 to V-2, depending on the details of manufacture. Greenhouse sheeting can probably be assumed to be at the more flammable end of that range; but could generally be expected be substantially less flammable than, say, polypropylene or polymethylmethacrylate GreenDesigns: "Enthusiastic ignorance is still ignorance." Well, geez. Was it my vast oversimplification of the Glass-Transition Temperature of polycarbonate as the temperature that it "doesn't start melting until" that made me seem ignorant? Or that I did not fully research all my ideas elsewhere before seeking input and information on them here? GreenDesigns: "Please refrain from giving advice that will catch someone's Kitchen on fire and result in toxic fumes both. Do t guess. Either know the answer and answer. Or don’t answer. Don’t stick in a bunch of dangerous BS." It was not my intention to give advice, or to "answer" as if I were some all-knowing authority. I meant to put forward ideas and hoped to discuss their merits. (Admittedly, when directly challenged to "RTFM," I did answer that by quoting the best authority I could readily find.) GreenDesigns: "Stick with talking pretty colors and decor." It seems I may have to. I was looking forward to have a interesting discussion here. Instead, I mostly got responses saying that the problem could not be solved or that everything I had suggested was wrong, without saying why or giving much other information at all. And, while my problem has been solved, it was not any of the knowledgeable experts who were so quick with those responses who were actually able to help - it was the OP. I don't speak the language of didactic imperative very well, and that seems to be making it rather hard for me to converse. I don't take well to direct insults, either, and that's making it rather hard for me to want to converse with some of you.

@palimpsest I agree, but the openings on either side of the fireplace lead through to the dining room on the other side. The side that is being blocked by the Christmas tree in the first photo has a built in cabinet with counter and book case that separates two rooms, but the right side if the fireplace can be passed through (although just the dogs do, we dont walk through it). There is a bedroom upstairs on the other side of the fireplace wall. I’ve seen a house on my street where they closed off the rooms completely from each other, but I don’t think that’s something I want to do here. Here is the reverse side of the fireplace wall (seen from our living room) - it is usually the dining room, but it is currently filled with stuff bc of the kitchen and floor work going on. There is a central courtyard that the dining room opens up onto, so I like the light that it lets through.. the room I’m putting the panels in faces north and the roof extends over the front patio area, so it’s quite dark. Especially since we haven’t added lights yet in there!

Hello all. I’m trying to do a vinyl wall paper that mimics grass cloth like texure. I also don’t want to see seams. The original wallpaper I bought is attached and after reading this thread in worried seams will show because it’s a horizontal pattern. I’ve attached an option 2 and option 3 pattern. It seems because option 2 has a vertical pattern that this will hide the seams. Is that correct? Option 3 im not sure but it’s also a darker wallpaper and the pattern seems to be horizontal and vertical would either of these qualities cause seams to show?