We’ve almost got the ceiling up. And it’s looking awesome. Ok, it’s not really looking all that awesome yet. But you can tell that it’s going to look awesome. That’s basically the same thing, right?

After we finished installing all the insulation, we added wood shims between the rows so that the old ceiling panels would be be the same thickness as the new ones.. 

After we got this done, it was time to start putting the ceiling panels back up. We wanted to re-use as many of the original panels as we could so we removed all the nails from the boards and if they didn’t split too much when we were taking them down, they were placed in the “re-use” pile. Before we could put them back up, we needed to give them a light sanding so that they would take primer and paint and therefore, look new once we were finished. Here I am sanding some of the boards.

Mark did alot of the sanding himself, but when I had time, I would sand and he would measure and cut the boards, then nail them to the ceiling.

When it came time to install a board where an electrical junction was, he used a jigsaw to cut out the wood around the junction box.

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It’s a perfect fit!

We didn’t have enough old wood boards to completely finish the ceiling because some split when we took them down and we cut them to different lengths so there was some scrap waste, but I’d say we were able to cover about 3/4 of the ceiling with what we had. Here’s how it looked about half way through.

What we didn’t realize until we got the ceiling panels back up is how dirty they were. Even after a good sanding, the boards looked like this up close.

Given this, we think a good coat of primer is definitely in store before we paint. And speaking of paint, we have started to think about the color as we’ll be painting the ceiling before we start tackling the floor. That way we don’t have to worry about drips which is especially nice when painting overheard. Here’s a little sneak preview of the ceiling that’s completed with a few paint samples already taped to the boards.

I will be back later this week with a full post about ceiling color. As you can see, we are thinking about a light blue and man are there alot of choices.  Is it just me or is blue a hard color to get right?

Before then, however, we have to finish the rest of the ceiling with store bought boards.  We hope to have that done before we celebrate the 4th, that way we can take advantage of some good paint discounts over the weekend.  If all goes well, we will be done with the ceiling by Sunday. *Happy Dance.*

Happy Fourth of July everyone.  Don’t go too crazy with the firecrackers.