I am trying to do a minor remodel on my small basement bathroom. It has a very low ceiling that is unfinished and has a couple of big pipes from the bathroom above it coming down through the ceiling and into the floor. It makes it difficult to make it look finished. I don't think I really have the room to box in the pipes. The bathroom has a vanity, toilet, and a plastic shower stall from god knows when. I would like to replace the shower stall but it would cost more than my budget will allow so I am just cleaning it up and replacing the fixture on it. My main concern is the ceiling. It is low so a drop ceiling would make it very low and I'm not sure the drop ceiling would work well with all the pipes anyway. I was thinking of just painting it all white but I'm not sure how that will look. I have considered drywall but then I lose access to the pipes and it seems like a pain. I was wondering if anyone else has run into similar problems and how they dealt with them. Thanks.

I have a wall between my kitchen and dining room that I want to take down. I do not believe it is load bearing but not everyone who has seen it agrees with me on that. It is a 2 story row house with a basement and a footprint of about 20'x30'. A picture from a 3D model of the house describing the situation can be found at [url]http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u206/adamgram/406%20E%20Montana%20St/406EMontanaStructure.png[/url] As you can see in the picture, the wall is partially under some joists that run parallel to the wall in question (N-S) and then towards the center of the house the direction of the joists above switches, so there are 5 joists above the wall running perpendicular to the wall in question (E-W). The N-S joists above sit with one end in the back wall (brick) and the other on a single wooden joist that spans the width of the house (about 20'). This happens at 3 points in the structure of the house, twice with the joists supporting the 2nd floor (as shown in the picture), and once with the joists supporting the 1st floor. In the two cases that do not involve the wall that I want to tear down, there is a double beam in the E-W direction that supports the one end of the N-S beams, as opposed to the single beam above the wall in question. The concern is that the reason that they used only one beam is because they had additional support from the wall that I want to take down, although it could also be that the other two cases needed more support because they also support the opening for the steps. There are additional structural concerns with this wall towards the back of the house shown in the picture, but this has been resolved with additional support. I am curious for any input regarding whether this wall is load bearing. Thanks in advance.