almost to the point of no return even though it had once been a showplace, I almost got the giggles from reading your questions. Don't I wish!
But I do like your suggestions about honey oak wainscotting on the two other walls. You have a very good eye. How would I get them to match the present wall, though? I don't want to paint GOOD oak paneling, but maybe oiling them all would help lessen the difference.
There's more I might should've described in the OP but I didn't want to put people to sleep with too much information at first.
The existing honey oak paneling was only installed at some point after or when the outside stairway was removed and the entry door covered over with siding. Some sweet day I want to have a 5'x5' double pane beveled glass picture window (which I dragged home from somebody's trash) installed in the center upper third of the present wall. After I do a faux-stained glass painting of the Grand Canyon on it first. I don't want to actually see out the window but rather use it to further illuminate a relatively dark area.
Yes, all the walls are 15' high except upstairs. Not the kitchen ceiling - some philistines lowered it down to 9' and installed those hideous white acoustic tiles. That will change when I get to redo the kitchen. The same was true in the living room but I had to take care of it several years ago because the tiles were trying to fall on my head. When that renovation got started, we found they weren't the only things trying to come loose and crash to the floor. The original ceiling had a massive medallion hanging by a thread - right over my sofa!
Anyway, back to the original (but no more) entry. The ceiling only has the original lath and a few shreds of plaster left. The house was probably electrified in the early 1930's (maybe earlier) and the original chandelier remains, so I'm glad for that much. The ONLY thing that might change your opinion about wainscotting the other two walls is the fact that they're presently lined with two wardrobes and a massive bookcase that NOBODY could get up the stairs, which are so steep and narrow as a cattle chute. I often think of mountain goats while climbing them! But it's okay because my warped thinking says stair climbing is good and will keep my strength up. Several people told me those stairs were the main reason they passed on the place. Well, there's also the door to a tiny WC. There's no fourth wall, just a framed 12' wide opening to the living room.
So if I installed the wainscotting, only a precious few inches would show.
Reason might say get rid of the furniture - but some of my stuff was passed down by my great-grandparents, so I can't. And the 'entry' leading to the stairs is the only place left to put those 3 huge pieces. Most of my furniture came from family. The rest I scrounged at thrift shops - the only place I could afford antiques - and from curbsides where people just threw out granny's old 'junk'. A few pieces from auctions or horsetrading. Many people in the rural Midwest don't want any part of their heritage. I found an ornate iron double-bed frame rusting in the middle of a pasture where it had once been used as a hay rack for livestock. I tracked down the owner and offered to pay him scrap metal price for it but he wouldn't even take that. "Just get it out of my sight," was all he said. And he looked at me as if I'd lost my mind.
No, the original crown moulding has long since disappeared. I'm thinking of putting up a wide carved picture rail so I don't have to poke holes in the new walls when they'ge installed. Good thing I can expect to live another 30 years barring accident, because sometimes I wonder if it's going to take me that long to finish the place. Then it goes to charity when I don't need it anymore.
Don't let me get started on the awful things people did do to this house in the last 30 or 40 years, though. Hideous when new and poorly done at that. A gang of stoned preteens could've done better work. I ripped out the cheap carpeting somebody GLUED on the downstairs wood floors and will probably have to paint over the glue that soaked in. Burgundy most likely. At least paint would be faithful to the era and a helluva lot less expense than new oak floors.
Thanks for your help, btw.
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