A couple pictures of the finished product. First, from about the same place and angle as the pictures during and after demolitions. Second, the final fate of the *nasty* circuit that used to power the servant's stairwell lights.
The first shot here is early in the demolitions of the ceiling, you can see the original beadboard is in pretty good shape. The second shot is after I'd gotten it all ripped down. (Yes, I was careful and >90% of the wood is reusable with a little cleaning.) The third shot is of the still hot power feed for the lights in the servant's stairwell. It was attached to the ceiling that is no more, it's about to be deprecated by the new wiring I'm doing, and you can see copper in several places through the insulation - cloth on 2 wires and old rubber on the other 2. It's pulled apart as far as things can go and is just going to hang there for a couple days until I finish getting rid of it.
I guess John wanted to document this before it gets ripped out, too. But that's a ways down in the priority list, so it's not going to happen soon...
A view through the door at the bottom of the servant's stairs.