removing the ceiling

Our little house is plagued with ugly ceilings and unfortunately they have to stay put for the moment. Originally we were afraid replacing them would be a huge challenge- we were sure the ugly cardboard tiles were installed to cover up water damage. We just don't have the money to start messing with major repairs at the moment. My short term plans include teaching myself how to install wallpaper and lining a couple of the ceilings with a textured grasscloth but until that happens we're going to live with the ugliness above (just don't look up when you come visit).
But because we are doing such an over hall in the kitchen we thought it would be a shame to ignore the big elephant in the room. Again, we couldn't imagine why anyone would mask a perfectly fine ceilings with ugly tiles, so we prepared ourselves for a disaster and we were pleasantly surprised (you can count how many times that has happened throughout the renovation process on one hand).

Ben started taking the crown molding down last night and the cardboard tiles just started popping out.
We discovered that nailing strips were put into place to hold up the boards- which will make it easier for us to install a new ceiling when we figure out what we're going to do.
A few weeks ago I posted about a kitchen design that was very similar to ours here. I loved the idea of the reclaimed wood on the ceiling and had mentioned to Ben that I might want to take advantage of our clean slate and do something a little more interesting. He quickly told me he loved the idea but didn't think it would work- he was afraid we'd have nothing to secure the wood to. But now that we have nailing strips he said it may still be a possibility.. I'm crossing my fingers!

Since the kitchen turned out so well, I've started questioning our originally decision to let the rest of the house be. I just don't want to push our luck..