RM, Are you clear about the advice that Billl gave you? It sounds as if you might not be. What he said about the window frames sticking out 1/4" too far meant that the sides of the window frame (literally the sides of the window, that are at right angles to the sashes holding the glass, the sticking-out edges of which you can not see when the trim is in place) were (after he had replaced the plaster with sheet rock) deeper than the plane of the installed sheet rock. He could have used two or more layers of sheet rock to build up the depth equal to the old plaster, or as he chose to do, he planed these edges down to meet the sheet rock evenly. He was not talking about planing the visible trim which is installed on top of the edges of the window frame and extends from there over and on to the plaster or sheet rock. The window trim bridges (and conceals) the joint between the edges of the window frame and the wall surface. That's why the window trim sticks up proud (as it is called) from the wall. It can only provide this bridge if the edges of the window frame and the overall plane of the wall covering are even. There is an excellent book on windows ( Working Windows) by Terry Meany, that you might find useful in grappling with complex construction, and nomenclature, of window frames. And I have a suggestion, I'd recommend emulating your user name's approach. Do your homework and understand what to do, what not to do and how to do each before you try to engage handymen, or semi-skilled home repair persons. Whatever you do, don't rely on the "professional" advice from workers with less knowledge, affection, or experience in old house renovations than you have. There are excellent resources on line (of course, tons of crappy info online, too); good print resources on the curatorial care of old houses, and of course a wealth of free advice here and on similar old-house positive fora. (Old House Web and Historic Homeworks are two very helpful and knowledgeable sources - Google 'em and post questions.) When I was a new old house owner, I figured that most workers knew more about houses renovations than I did. Most did, but only a few knew more about old house renovations than I did, which was next to nothing, at first. Luckily, I didn't have too much money to do renos right away, so I was spared making mistakes by not being able to pay workers. In the meantime I made it my business to learn about how my buildings were put together and, what others had done with similar structures. When I was finally ready to embark, I knew that many of the things I might have blythely embarked upon were really bad ideas. The best thing you can do for your house is clean it, study it, and learn about it. Only then would I suggest getting involved with workers. What I suggest is both money-saving (which you'll need as good old house work is never cheap) and absorbs all that new-house-I-gotta-make-it-mine-energy that everybody has right after they close. The handyman who got upset about you wanting to save money by demoing is exactly why you need to learn more about houses before you hire workers. But, please, use your energies to scrub the floors, or dig a garden, or something else, instead of demoing right off the bat. It's not that hard (but a much bigger mess than you can ever imagine, though, and once started you have to see it through to conclusion) but don't use it as a catharsis. It must be done in a deliberate manner, (I really like the "deconstruction" approach noted above) after careful consideration of whether it is the right thing to do. Sometimes it is, sometimes not. Have you tried to remove the drywall from one small area to see what's underneath? Do you know by whom and under what circumstances it was installed? There may be some clues to be gained by investigating, or querying about it. Again, a case of the benefit of not just launching into it.

We also thought that sounded high, thats why we got a total of four estimates and they were all in the same ball park.We went with the one that our homeowner's insurance recommended. We have not paid them yet. Can they put a mechanics lien on our house? They also have some carpet repairs upstairs to do and they want to do it on Tuesday. I'm thinking I should probably hold off until they straighten this up, if they can. The area of texture they did looks like a horrible splotchy mess of rougher texture that looks nothing like the rest of our ceiling. Does anyone know what process needs to be done to make it look right? Does anyone know why the area of texture would look so splotchy. You can see roller brush marks. I tried another coat of paint in a small section and it did nothing. Should the whole ceiling be skimmed or can texture go over old texture and still look right? If they try to fix it and it still looks bad can we only pay for the actual drywall repair itself and find someone else to retexture and paint? Thanks Lisa

At my lumber yard they sell 1/2" thick clear poplar (they call it Jamb Liner, I think for the replacement window trade) and while not cheap, it is just what you need here; with any luck there is room for 1/2" jamb stock and then apply the casing of your choice. You could picture frame it, or use a stool and apron at the bottom. Best to employ a skilled mechanic. Casey

Hi All, I just wanted to provide an update and thanks again for all the thoughtful perspectives through this discussion. We decided to make the new stuff smooth, and we were going to leave the old-stuff textured to save $. Also, as a way to save $, we asked the drywallers to spray prime all rooms. Although the drywallers had estimated that skim-coating would cost $5K (over budget), when we asked for the primer estimate they said the could do the whole house primed AND (the old stuff) skim coated for $1.3K. This seemed crazy - I know - how is it possible? Our contractor also thought it was an error. How can skim coat + primer be so much less than the skim coat? (Maybe because the original $5K estimate was on the high side - I don't know). In any case, alls well that ends well - we got the smooth walls and painting and saved $! I will note here that our contractor - who is in his 60s and worked on lots of nice midwest houses - said that ours was the first in his career that requested smooth walls. Everyone's support here for smooth walls gave me the confidence to stand firm on no-texture, and it paid off!! House looks amazing!! Thank you!