Removal required that we tear out the plasterboard and cut away the supports for the arch. Fortunately the doorways themselves were fine.
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Well at least when we bought the house the dining room was empty - well except for the "lighting" which was almost the first to go. The major "style" that the dining room really demonstrated included the aches. Now understand they were about 6 foot six inches in the center - so Robby could carefully walk through the middle, but any sidestep caused him to bump his head. One of the first things we did was to grab the saw and cut those suckers out. We knew we would "eventually" get around to the trim work - but getting them GONE was the higher priority.
All these arches needed caution tape along the upper edges. It really was somewhat of a shame that the builders spent so much time and money creating these masterpieces and I hope THEY enjoyed them. The other issue was that the front door entrance aimed you into the dining room, through this sort of narrow slot. In reality there is an incredible view out the dining room window as you look past the wash to the mountains.
Removal required that we tear out the plasterboard and cut away the supports for the arch. Fortunately the doorways themselves were fine.
Look at the difference when you remove the arch. Even though the actual opening is not wider it appears to be.
Below you can see the opening once we (finally) added the trims. There is a significant story to the wood and we will print, frame, and hang it near the front one of these days.
About 1850 the gold miners in the Sierra Mountains needed a water tank and they cut down a first-growth redwood tree and created a tank that was about ten feet high and 20 or more feet across. Certainly enough water to supply them for a while. That abandoned tank was salvaged about 1950 by the father of one of our friends. He needed a source of water for fire protection for his house in the Los Gatos Hills near Santa Cruz.
About 2000 when his parents had died Bud began to clean up the property to sell it and asked us if we had any need for this empty tank before he took it to the dump. We jumped at the chance to get this wood that was well over 2000 years old - despite the paint on the outside and the tar on the inside. Over the years we have used small amounts to make wine racks and picture frames, but it is very labor intensive to strip off the inside nails and tar and the outside peeling paint.
We decided to cut back some of the wood so that in the kitchen and media room the beautiful wood is exposed. The the dining room and hall we decided to keep the exterior paint look, but scrape it lightly so as not to have it peel further. All the wood received several coats of polyurethene to protect it and preserve the history.
Obviously the lighting was changed and we added tracks to allow directed spotlights onto the artwork. The floor was replaced to match the rest of the house
As seen from the front door
Final dining room