House reno pics, soffit detail question. (w/pics)

[David Eisan]

Hello everyone,

I have not been posting much because I have been tied up with house renovations.

My old house (remember the white kitchen cabinets) sold in less than a day, so I guess no one minded the inconsistent reveal from the scribe strip I put up.

I had about 1 week to enjoy the old house before I started on the new one. The renovations here are extensive (to say the least!).

This was a perfectly good house in move in condition, that is, if you have 70's taste. Nice wall paper and shag carpet everywhere. Very little had been done to this house since it was built in 1975, exactly what I was looking for. The main floor was broken up into little rooms, a hallway, kitchen, living and dining room with a den behind the garage.

Katarina and I totally demolished the main floor. We took out two 20 yard dumpsters. All the interior walls on the main floor, all the old flooring and 95% of the cabinetry throughout the house.

This is what it looked like after a little demo,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/demoing1.jpg

Two temporary walls were built in place to support the second floor as the main load bearing wall was removed,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/beamin.jpg

The beam is huge. In order for it to be flush mounted, it had a flange welded onto the bottom of it to carry the second floor joists that used to rest on a 2x6 wall that also housed the all the air supplies and returns from the second floor.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/bigbeam.jpg

All the electrical from the interior walls has been moved or removed. The HVAC ducts have been rerouted to the outside walls and tucked into a soffit that runs around the main open room.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit1.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit2.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit3.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit4.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/soffit5.jpg


My main question is how to deal with this soffit for paint and "orange peel" knocked down spray on texturing.

Different scenarios,

1) Treat the entire soffit as the ceiling and texture the side and bottom of it, paint the entire soffit white like the ceiling.

2) Texture just the bottom of the soffit, paint it white like the ceiling and paint vertical portion the same colour as the body of the room.

3) No texture on the soffit at all, paint the entire soffit the same colour as the room.

Being the wood guy I am, I would like to add some crown detail, but I don't know where or even if I should.

The floor and new staircase with be Jatoba. The kitchen cabinets will be cherry, you can see the rough in for the island beside the dishwasher. There are lots of new pot lights and rough ins for a fixture above the kitchen/dining table (in front of the new sliding door) and pendants above the island.

What are your ideas?

Thank you,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him

[Jim Becker]

I guess you're "him" in the new neighborhood, too!! LOL

Wow...that's quite a project. I'm not fond of texture on the soffits...wall color on the wall plane and ceiling or wall color on the bottom, depending on where it is and what would look best would be my choices.

[Ben Grunow]

That soffit looks to be deeper than the upper cabinets so a small crown or bed mldg would be nice if you could find/make one to fit the space. Otherwise I have installed crown so it is nailed to the tops of the cabinets and projects out past the face of the soffit and hides the joint between soffit and cabinet. Occasionally made this into a plate display area using the window stool above the crown to form a shelf about 4" wide.

This is something that (probably not news to you) must be thought out in the design stages as kitchen cabs might be stained and then crown should be stain grade as well or even ordered from the cab mfgr if not you. Pay special attention to where moldings will end if installed between cabinet and soffit. This occasionally requires upper cabinets to be made smaller in width to leave a place to properly terminate a crown rather than just returning it on itself in the midde of no where.

Ben

[David DeCristoforo]

"My main question is how to deal with this soffit..."

Being a guy who does not care for soffets, my "favorite" way of dealing with them is to remove them. However, since you are using them as chases for your mechanicals, that would not be an option unless you wanted to re-route everything. In a case like this I would panel them with wood to match the cabinets with a modest transition moulding between the cabinets and the soffet and a bigger crown at the ceiling. The face of the soffet paneling can be left plain, have small panels to match the doors or otherwise be decorated with applied mouldings.

[Peter Stahl]

I'm not a wall soffit person either. I had them in my last house and painted them the same color as the walls. You can't hide them so do what appeals to you, you have to look at them not us. As far as texture goes, I don't like it either. The only time I would use it is in a old house to cover old plaster walls.