Ceilings

Today I am learning patience. All of you must be wondering what HeWho is up to. You would be right on the mark to be wondering this.

I may have mentioned before that when we put the new roof on, some 10 years ago, the vent pipe on the roof was not properly sealed and resulted in a leak. I caught it with the very first rain and the problem on the roof was taken care of. The problem that resulted in the ceiling was never addressed. It wasn't a gaping hole. Just a bulge. I don't know that I would have even noticed it in someone else's house, but it drew my eyes every time I entered the room.

Over the years, the bulge became more prominent and a crack appeared. I painted over and tried to hide it. For whatever reason, out of the blue, HeWho suddenly decided that we should repair it. I could tell he had put some thought into and we tossed low cost ideas back and forth, trying to avoid actually replacing the sheetrock. The ceiling has a swirly pattern that is really hard to duplicate. I know this from experience.

We thought about a faux coffered ceiling after I nixed his idea of a tin ceiling by looking up the price of the panels. He became excited about the idea and off we went on a mission to Menards. They had the lowest cost on the 1X2's (a small room would look really funny with anything bigger) and the 11% rebate they were offering. We all know how I feel about sales and rebates.

Some weeks passed after procuring the necessary materials. I have an old church pew on the front porch and at any given time you can find the beginning of one of HeWho's projects either in the seat or under the pew. I knew we would be working on the ceiling when I heard the compressor come on outside the window. I made myself available to help.

The first obstacle was the nails for the gun. He couldn't find them (that comes as no surprise). I rushed into my laundry room where I had labored over putting all the tools and the accessories to the tools in order. I came back with a can full of nails ready to load the gun. He deemed them useless, not long enough. A trip to the hardware store.

He returned with the longer nails and we started. I was excited, thinking we could whip this project out in no time. I was not feeling great, but I was game to get it done. The bulge in the ceiling was a bigger problem than we realized and the plan was put on hold. Sheetrock came down and a new piece was patched in. While the piece was out, it was determined that the joists were on 24" centers and not 16". This means we had to be careful about adding too much weight to the ceiling. Or so I was told. Actually, that made logical sense to me.

The new sheetrock was put in before Christmas, before I came down with the flu. So, last week we tried to install the 1X2"s again. They refused to lay flat. Despite the fact that HeWho seems to think the nail gun is a machine gun that should spit out as many nails as possible, as fast as possible. This matters when you have to disassemble one of his projects. It makes for a lot of work with needle nose pliers. But that is another story about how ..... thrifty I am.

So here we were, two stepstools in the middle of the room, furniture pushed to one side. Both of us discouraged. The ceiling finish would be labor intensive to sand off. Not at all like popcorn ceilings, this would require a lot of time on a ladder with a sander and arms in the air. We are old, you know. Our joints are not cooperative. And you know how things are, once you start, you end up going beyond that one room.

We quit and watched TV. For two days. I was at the height of my coughing non-stop and wondering if I should make a will.  We threw ideas out from time to time, but mostly just sat there on our computers in front of the TV. I dozed a lot and sipped orange juice.

Finally we decide the cheapest way was to cover the ceiling in luan, then add the 1X2's and then I will paint it all. That's right, I do all the painting. When we show the place to sell, we are selling a business, not a home, so as long as it looks "okay", I am good with it.

So, the first board goes up. The building is ducted for heat and air. There is no central air unit. That was gone when we bought the place. The furnace is really old and we don't use it. We have the wood stove and a back-up propane heater that keeps us warm. He measures the placement of the ceiling vent and he cuts the hole. It was way off. Yesterday he tried again. I watched him measure it. It looked like he was doing it right. Better on the 2nd attempt, but still not right. 

He left that piece up and quit for the day. This morning I looked at it and knew the vent cover would not fit. He cut the hole the size of the entire cover, not just the part that should go into the ceiling. When he came back from his morning biscuit and gossip session with his cronies, I enlightened him to the error of his ways. Diplomatically, of course.

I am so glad we are putting these up in 4X4' sections. Because, we would be down 3 sections by now. I offered to do the measuring. My job is to climb up on the stool and hold while he employs the nail gun. The new hole is wrong, but he swears he can "make it fit". I had suggested just covering the hole. We don't use the vent system.

Now I have to figure out what to do with boards that were cut wrong. Not to worry, I will come up with something!

In the meantime, I am making a rag rug. It is actually referred to as a toothbrush rug. The tool used is a toothbrush. You simply pop the brush off and file the raw edge. Mine already had a hole in the end, that becomes the "eye" of the needle. It is about the size of a toilet seat, so far. If only I can figure out how to download pictures on my new computer .........