Beam Me Up: Part II

Amid all the other crazy things in our lives, we managed to get the living room beam boxed in this week. I'll be honest -- it's not a project I've enjoyed very much. It's been difficult and frustrating and hasn't turned out quite as we hoped. It doesn't look awful, but it's not perfect either.

Before:

After: (The small horizontal board is only temporary)

There is a seam in the center that we'll have to get creative to cover up. We wanted to avoid this, but the beam is 24 feet long; a lot surprises can crop up across a span that long. We'll make it work though. We are thoroughly frustrated, but I have faith that we'll figure it all out.

Overall, it makes a really big difference. Your eyes are no longer drawn immediately to a giant chunk of steel when you walk in the room. While the presence of the beam is still a little intrusive, it looks wayyyy better than having posts in the center of the living room -- which is what we avoided by installing this monster to begin with. Now we're working on encasing the side supports, which, as it turns out, is going to be just as fun as encasing the beam itself. Thankfully, that should be the last big hurdle in getting this room done. I'm seriously burning out on this stuff...