Let's Probe Deeper...Deeper...

Call me impatient, but I want to know what we'll find when we tear into this house, so I cut a few exploratory holes. I was curious how easily the "popcorn" finish would come off the Living and Dining Room ceilings, so I scraped it off the beam, revealing the marks from the room dividers that they removed for "open concept" reasons.

First, I opened the back of the coffee maker. It really is connected to water (with a 1/4" ice maker line).

Next, I explored the exterior wall. The 2x4s are about 1-1/2" x 3-1/2", so we won't have to furr out. And, there is insulation: About an 1-1/2" batt faced with roofing felt.

The clean-shaven beam without its popcorn finish.

The beam inside the drywall is bizarre (see below)

Lastly, I pried off the hardboard (likely "Marlite") paneling next to the laundry door (right)

The beam between the Living and Dining Rooms is an odd case. I knew it was structural, because you can see the joists lap on it in the attic. On the Living side, we see (2) 2x8s with a 1/2" spacer doing the heavy lifting, as they say. They have a double 2x4 plate above, making the wood 10-1/4" tall. An engineered beam strapped to the plate could raise the opening height, or we could mount it flush in the attic.

Either way, the naked beam only needs to be 3-1/2" thick. It appears that someone furred out the beam on the Dining side to make the beam that much thicker and uglier. The original drywall from the Dining side of the dbl 2x8 beam is still there--buried mid-beam. The furring doesn't engage with the north wall--the drywall runs up behind the furring.

Finally, I'm not certain I hate the popcorn ceiling after all. It came off the beam very easily, suggesting that it's an acoustical coating applied in the last year or so. It's actually a pretty decent installation, and it hides a lot of 68-year-old drywall problems, I'll bet. If we pulled the old drywall down, installed new drywall and gave it a skip-trowel finish to hide imperfections caused by the old ceiling joists, wouldn't it seem a lot like the acoustic stuff we've got?