I would say that faux finishes are not in vogue anymore. If you still want wallpaper in a high traffic area how a textured one like grass cloth or similar? You might want to look on houzz.com for ideas. You can type in just about any search word and get pages of pictures.

sfsuperstar: "My husband's really doesn't like the ridge, and the rest of the ceiling is so smooth he thinks trying to blend a 3/4" deep ridge will look obvious, so his tentative plan as of this evening is to remove the ridge of mesh to try to flatten it, then try to redo the crack repair smooth." That sounds reasonable. You may have to widen the crack just a bit more and clean it out, trying to cut under the edges as much as you can so the patching material has a place to grab in to and hang on. sfsuperstar: "It seems that the sagging part isn't an edge of the mesh, but is a center part of the mesh -- like an upside-down mini-mountain ridge. Should he try to cut out just the ridge part of the mesh with an exacto knife, or does he have to remove the whole mesh tape (even the part that's not sagging)?' I would guess it depends on how easily it cuts. I've not used it before, so I can't say. If it ravels and gets frayed and stringy, then it may be hard to cover over again with whatever you use. sfsuperstar: "And should he re-repair the crack / removal damage with flat drywall tape and joint compound? Or is there something plaster-specific that he should use? I'm not familiar with the patching plaster you mentioned." It may be OK to use the drywall tape, but I would wonder how much it would give or move under changes in temp and humidity in the ceiling without breaking loose at some point. I really don't know! We got the patching plaster at the hardware store; it's dry and comes in fairly small bags, and you just add it to a small amount of water in a container and let it absorb the water, stirring or 'folding' the mixture only very gently. If memory serves, drywall compound is still water soluble after it dries, while the patching plaster is a bit more impervious to water once it dries. Drywall compound also has a tendency to crack easily as it dries if it's applied to thickly, and the patching plaster doesn't do that as readily.

Bi-fold doors are sized to it a finished opened. So for example, a 36x80" bi-fold door is actually a little smaller than 36x80" to give it room to move in the opening. Conventional doors require a rough opening about 2" bigger than the dimensions of the door to accommodate the jamb. At 40 1/2" wide, you're going to have a difficult time finding a bi-fold because most manufacturers limit their panel width to about 18". Going with 4 doors would also be an issue because they would be about 10" wide. A double door is also going to be a little tricky because you'd be talking about two 18" doors (36") plus a couple of inches = 38". It's also not a good idea to install a door over drywall, so if you removed a 1/2" on each side, you'd a have rough of about 41 1/2". That would work with 20" doors cut down by about 1/4". You're also going to do something about the height. I'd probably just block down to be able to use a standard 80" door. You're also probably need louvered doors (or add a vent) for combustion air for the furnace. In addition you need to consider any set-backs required by the appliance manufacturers.

@Jennifer Hogan, I love the idea of using the stairs as a backdrop for the TV :-) How would you address the downward stairs next to it, though? I measured... the distance of the opening of the upward stairs to the rails of the downward stairs is 54", and the depth of the opening to the downward stairs to the wall is 44". You can see that the left-side railing on the downward stairs would block the TV unless you're right in front of it :-( If I'm going to dream... I'd love to find a way to get rid of the stairs altogether! You can see that there's another half-wall on the left side that matches the half-wall that divides the living room and dining room. But this half-wall is right next to the refrigerator, which keeps me from being able to open the right-side door all the way! It's SUCH a pain!! I'm about to rip out the stairs and just put in a dang elevator... that'd buy me 7' of usable space back!!!! LOL For the patio doors I would get the draft addressed That's definitely on my list of projects. My beagle was terrified of people (to the point of seizures) and had a hard time walking on the non-carpeted floors, but now that he's gone we plan to replace windows, the sliding glass door, and floors on this level. But I have to decide what to do about the stair railings and the 8' wall first. It's not just a draft, though... in the winter when it's cold outside, you can stand in front of the windows or doors and just FEEL the cold emanating from the glass! It's not uncommon for me to have a $400 electric bill in the winter, and the drapes helped to cut that down to about $300. I'm not sure that there's anything on the market that will really help solve that :-O remove the drapes and if necessary get simple light colored vertical blinds. When closed they should block the light. The previous owners actually had vertical blinds, but they didn't work well at all! Light came through the cracks, they didn't block the cold, and they had a very 1980s corporate office look :-( I'm kind of thinking about replacing the sliding glass doors with pocket doors or French doors, but I don't really know.