Ugly cold air return

You first enter a vestibule when you walk into our house using the first door.  Originally there was a door that separated the vestibule from the central entry hall. We've found a vintage door and replaced the missing door.

But when you enter into the central entry hall the first thing that you see is an ugly cold air return. The way it was installed, it hides about 10 inches of the arch that leads into the back hall.  It's beyond ugly. Not only does it hide part of the arch but it was covered in dry wall and doesn't match the plaster walls at all.

It's got to go and Wednesday was the day.

Look at that lovely Big Gulp in our newly discovered niche.

See how the cold air return hides part of the arch.  Who does that?

We started ripping it out and in less than an hour we removed that ugly dry walled monolith.

Yes, I know R has his sweat shirt on backwards.  That's a 50% improvement over how he usually wears his sweatshirts.  They are usually backwards AND inside out. That is his werking (not twerking but werking) uniform.  Flannel lined jeans, t shirt, and a old sweatshirt.

This is what it looks like now.  We are going to relocate it to the other side of the wall in the laundry room.  You can see that this was installed while the walls were pink.  I will need to locate more of this vintage baseboard.  I'm sure I'll be able to find some at my favorite place in Grass Lake but I'll wait until I know exactly how many feet I will need to finish all of the first floor.

 There some floor repair in our future and of course some plaster repair.

And of course the crown moulding will have to be removed and new pieces installed.  Of course, I will need to remove the paint from the now exposed walls.

I mentioned in an earlier post that Kim (our visitor who used to live in the caretaker house) said there was another niche or two but couldn't remember off hand where.  Well, I think I might have found one next to the fireplace in the living room.

See the cracks.  I'm thinking niche.  I'll know for sure when I get over to that corner in my paint scraping.  BTW isn't that floor lamp purdy?  I have two of them.