Monday, December 28, 2009

Ceilings, painted walls and other Winter colors

It's winter again and the days are short and cold. Most of our work is inside but there is still plenty to be done on the exterior. I finally put the metal cap on the second vent box last week. In the spring we will put the roof vents on these two boxes.
We had a day of nice weather so we clad the back porch ceiling with plywood. This will serve as a sub-base for the wood cladding we have been saving over the years. The original house has a lot of wide plank, heart pine on the walls and floor. We tried to save as much as possible during the demolition phase. If we have enough, we will use this to clad the porch ceiling.

Meanwhile, the walls were being painted inside. The front room is almost finished and should be ready for use by the end of the year. Julie's boyfriend dropped by to have a look....

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Ceiling Panels

With the walls primed, we began staining our ceiling panels. Because of the cold weather we had to stain all 16 panels inside the house. We had panels drying everywhere! We are using 1/2" Sandyply plywood panels that will match the existing ceiling we installed 6 years ago. It's a lot harder to discard a piece of cabinet grade plywood than a sheet of drywall so we spent a lot of time laying out our cuts. Glen came back to give us a hand and the installation went off without a hitch.

Corner beads and Tape seams



With the drywall in place, Sam and his crew began taping and mudding. I had forgotten how drywall cleans up all the rough corners. After looking at rough framing for the last 8 months, the precision of corner beads and taped seams was a welcome addition to our little project. We haven't turned on our heat pump this season because of the dust and the cold weather was coming fast. Sam and the guys worked straight through Thanksgiving weekend to help us get ready for the upcoming cold spell.



Sam and his guys did a great job of cleaning up some difficult corners where the new house met the old.After a fresh coat of primer (yes, low VOC) we were ready for some paint!