Raise the Roof

The ceiling in the addition to our house is a little different. It has rafters that are exposed to the room, which creates a very interesting architectural element, especially with their 9.5 ft height. (the funny part is that this ceiling is only one of six different types in our entire house, but more on that in another post).

Unfortunately, the ceiling in the living room is also the one we see the most often. Between entertaining our weekly group on Sunday Nights (to watch Zombies, Vikings, and Games centered around the procurement of Thrones), and just Scott and I watching our nightly Modern Family and Big Bang Theory, we tend to see it a lot. This wouldn't be an issue if it had been finished correctly.

As it stood, there were some flaws. The first of which was the single layer of paint that was used to cover the dark plywood ceiling and beams. The second of which was the horrible patch job applied to the raw wood that was never sanded. Coming in third would have to have been the yellowing of whatever spackle had been originally used and how in areas, the caulking was pulling away from the wood, leaving small cracks and gaps.

Gross.

One night, as we laughed for the 100th time as Bernadette Rostenkowski screamed downstairs at Howard Wolowitz's mom, Scott and I both brought up how the ceiling needed a little bit of love. The next day, I ran out and grabbed some caulking and started the very boring task of prepping the 23ftx17ft expanse for it's new eventual coat of paint. 

Some places we couldn't do much about. This dip has been there since we moved in, but was inspected and merely described as, "a dip in the roofing". It was reported to not have any impact on the state of the roofing itself, so we have left it alone. As for the rest of the roof, the 'before' images are pretty revealing.

Other parts were just never painted, like around where the ceiling fan is mounted.

But after everything was patched, the difference was astounding. We haven't painted it yet, but even just having less gaps has brightened the room.

The biggest issue was where an old wood burning stove had previously stood in the corner of the living space. It had been taken out before we even toured the house, but the piece of wood that had been haphazardly placed over the hole was a less than desirable solution to hide it's remnants.

I carefully unscrewed all of the screws (none of which, after examination, matched in the slightest) and pulled down the old piece of scrap. I suppose I should have at least been happy that someone painted it white. The side that had faced the attic looked like this.

I'm guessing that most of the debris is from the old stove pipe (which was only taken out when we had our new roofing installed), but I wouldn't put it past some rodents to have made a little home up there. Ugh.

Once the old ceiling bandaid had been ripped off, it was time to apply a new sterile bandage that would hide the blemish much more convincingly. I grabbed some scrap wood and cut it in half, leaving me with two strips. These strips were going to support the piece of wood I would use to patch the hole. I could have also used a piece of drywall and some drywall mud/mesh, but I used wood so that it would blend in with the rest of the wood textured ceiling. It helps that we also had it in scrap, so this fix cost us nothing.

After cutting a piece of plywood that we had sitting around in the garage to the appropriate size (14in x 14in, how nice!), I then screwed it into the two supports that I had already mounted. (I did spray a coat of white primer on the plywood before mounting it, just to make it a little easier to paint later)

Sexy.

Using a scraper, I tried to take off as much of the extra material that was stuck around the hole as possible Then I patched it the same way you would patch a wall. Mud tape, mud/spackle/sand, add more mud, repeat.

While that dried, I went around and patched any other places that needed a little attention.

When everything had dried, been sanded, and was smooth, I came back to the new patch and gave it a quick coat of some white paint I had in the garage. Check out the difference.

Waaaaaaay before:

Sort of After:

After:

What?! WHERE DID IT GO?! I believe it was a victim of my awesomeness...

We haven't quite gotten to repainting yet. As with anything, it's a process. We are just generally pleased to have most of the eyesores out of the way for when we do paint.

What do you think? Is repainting a ceiling a waste of time "as long as it's white", or do you think a little ceiling paint goes a long way toward cleaning up the look of a room? Let me know in the comments!

Adirondack Adventures

While walking through Beth's neighborhood a couple of months ago, some of the trash that had been put by the side of the road caught my eye. There were two Adirondack chairs, a little worse for wear but still in one piece, by the trashcans in front of one of the houses. I couldn't help myself. We grabbed them and threw them in Beth's truck. She dropped them off the next day and they sat in our garage for a while.

I have finally gotten around to finishing them and I have to say, they fit in nicely with our outdoor space. We first gave them a good once over with David's sander. We figured that because the paint was already chipping off, it would easily strip away, but we were surprised by how tough it was to get a smooth surface.

We did what we could, filling in holes and sanding down really rough areas. Once the tops had been sanded, you could even see that they used to be painted white before they were given a dark green color change.

The seat was also difficult to really get into with the sander because of the scoop. We managed to clean off most of the debris, but we would need a tiny little (yet powerful) sander to really get into the seat itself.

I think we used a sanding block just to finish it, but I'm not specifically sure. There was quite a flurry of sandpaper, sawdust, and paint chips flying around while we worked.

Believe it or not, this is actually where we stopped. It doesn't look completely stripped because it wasn't. We felt that the adhesion of the paint that had remained was good enough that covering it with a paint-and-primer-in-one would do the job.

Before painting anything, we were sure to examine all of the screws that held it together, tightening them where we could. One of the arms needed a little extra support, so Scott screwed a small block of wood underneath to shore it up.

It was finally time to paint. I wanted them to match the two plastic Adirondack chairs that we already had around the fire pit, so I chose a color that felt close to them. I have found that when it comes to spray paint, you can't beat the new Valspar line at Lowes. They have a nice selection of colors and paints for different areas of the house, both inside and out.

I started with two cans thinking that two coats would be enough. I was wrong. One can barely covered one coat.

It's kind of hard to tell in the photo, but it didn't saturate as well as a paint and primer usually do. The wood was so worn that there were distinct guttered streaks that followed the grain. Covering those took 4 cans per chair overall. Here is a better example of the texturing issue I'm referring to.

After the fourth can of spray paint ran dry, though, the coverage was much better. Once they were ready, we moved them out to the fire pit. They fit right in. The colors matched even better than I could have imagined!

The fire pit feel so nice and established now (except for, you know, the actual pit itself. We're hoping to build in a permanent one so it's not so sad).

We have already used them once and it was cozy. We can't wait for Fall so we can sit around the fire and drink pumpkin beer while roasting our marshmallows. The only question is who wants to sit in the plastic and who wants to sit in the wood!

Tub Step

The hot tub is plugged in, filled up, and bubbling away on our back porch. It's been so nice having it lately, because we use our TV cable app and sit outside in the tub, watching TV on my tablet and hanging out. A nice little paradise in the middle of KY.

When we picked it up from the Bachmeyer household, it came with a box of chemicals, a thermometer, and steps. We were excited that it came with steps because stepping that far off the ground to get into an elevated, slick surfaced tub is kind of a no-no.

Unfortunately, the steps had seen better days. When you put your weight on them, the top step would almost cave in. They also had some issues when flipped over.

As you can see, there was just the TINIEST hint of rot. Just a little. I don't want to get technical, but I'd say an iota of rot...

Just kidding. It was everywhere. The rot had pretty much taken over all of the exposed wood on the interior of the steps (where there was no exterior paint) and around the bottom edge. Setting this on a solid surface still felt you were stepping on a marshmallow.

We knew that we would need to replace them, but we didn't quite know how to go about it. I decided to check the Amazon and see what the price of  'plastic hot tub steps' would be. It was a little outrageous. Close to $90 just for two steps. We didn't need a whole staircase!

As always, I said, "Um, no, I can do it cheaper".

I remembered seeing pre-cut stair supports at Home Depot, so I bought one. It cost $10. (By the way, on this project, I will only spend the astronomical amount of $10.)

I could either make half of a four step ladder that was terribly supported, or I could cut it in half and make two steps. Though tempted by the first option, I decided to go for the more practical approach.

I cut it in half, following the same angle as the nearest step to the center of the overall support. Here is the line I used (drawn with a straight edge). I then cut along the line.

For the steps to sit correctly, they have a different angle at the top and bottom of the support. I simply put one piece on top of the other and marked my next cuts. This would make sure that they were the exact same piece.

I trimmed the one to match the other and I was done. This took about 5 minutes of work.

Then I went to the wood pile and grabbed a couple of pieces of 5.5 in. by 1 in. (If you decide to do this project and you are making it for an outdoor space, please be sure to use pressure treated lumber. All of the lumber you see me using in this post is pressure treated.).

I measured the top of the old steps. It was 27 in. wide at the top, so I cut four pieces of the 1 x 5.5 to 27 in. in length.

Measuring and cutting probably took a good 10 minutes. When I had finished, I was ready to start assembly.

I started with the bottom step. I used 3 inch exterior screws (because that's what we already had). I pre-drilled every screw, making my life a lot easier. This is why two drills are better than one.

The board you see on the right inside portion of the second step is there as a support. I decided to add support to the rear to keep the whole thing from falling when you stepped on it. (Because it's all about the little details). I took an extra board and marked and cut my pieces.

To install them, I clamped them to the stair supports. This way I could drill from the outside in, leaving the exposed tips of the screws away from naked ankles and soft toes.

I repeated the process for the other side.

After having supported the structure, I added the second step. I made sure that the overhang was the same as the bottom step, allowing for the width of the wood and a crack between for drainage (from both tub water and rain).

It's still in need of a good sanding. I would really like to cover the steps with some of the sticky exterior safe tread, but for now, we are just trying it on for size. (Which, size-wise, it's exactly the same height and width as the previous stairs. Just 100% less fally-aparty)

So much nicer than wondering if you're going to be the person who falls through the step! I am going to paint it the same color as the tub, too, so help it blend a bit. Honestly, the whole kaboodle took about 30 minutes to complete, so it was a nice to knock it out before Scott got home.

There is even a bit of an added bonus with our new stairs. See the giant grey rope? That's actually the electrical from the tub. Since there is a little gap between the stair support and the back legs of the stair, it fits much nicer. Huzzah!