Framing and facade

    The ideal size I determined for the dimensions was seven feet tall and four feet wide. A height of eight feet would've been the easiest because I am using a 4x8 'plywood' facing, but since my ceiling is eight foot, there would be no room for maneuvering, transporting and the doorways are obviously smaller. I did the framing in my dining room and made all the cuts in the garage or driveway. A lot of materials are precut in eight and foot foot sections. I just had to do a little more work on the vertical pieces.

    I looked at a lot of materials for the facade, lightweight being the key attribute. Foam boards would have been the lightest, but it definitely wasn't sturdy enough for the sconces and trim. I'm sure there would be some way to work that out but I'm also looking for simplicity.
    Additional attributes I was looking for were a smooth surface, strength, economy and something easy to cut. Traditional 'glued-chunk layered plywood' (Again, I'm not a carpenter so bear with my terminology) is heavy as heck and definitely not the smooth surface I was looking for. Smooth surface plywood that is glued in whole layers was just too darn heavy as well. Fiberboard lacked the strength once cut. Sheet-rock-- heavy, messy and a lot of work. There were probably 10 other materials I ruled out. My best fit was a 5mm RevolutionPly poplar plywood available for $13.88. It was stronger than it looked, relatively light (for wood) and super smooth. The smoothness would become important when wallpapering. Below is a photo of the product.

   Now I mentioned in the first post that I had some duh-moments and some dos and do-nots during the progress. Some fudging was needed. My duh-moment here was how the heck and I going to get this thing home. I have a full-size SUV but it definitely wouldn't fit in the back. A roof mount was near impossible because I can thank Jeep for not putting a single facet, opening or any other means of attachment to the roof-rails. Sure, I could go with the twine through the windows method that we've had to do with Christmas trees, but this board is so thin, slick and susceptible to wind it was neither practical or safe. What to do? Cut it in half. Luckily Lowe's offers free cuttings. After a discussion with the friendly employee about size and cuts, we determined it needed to be cut in thirds. He forewarned me that the thickness of the saw blade he used would not only shave length, but the boards won't be exactly the same size. I figured with the trim I was planning it wouldn't really matter. This choice turns out to cause quite a few issues and some more work, but we'll go over that fudging later.