Leaky Roof

We've been getting a lot of rain lately. That's typical for this time of year, and ordinarily it simply means focusing more on indoor projects. The other day Dan noticed that the pantry ceiling was stained like it was leaking.

Pantry ceiling

Not good. He took a look at the roof and found that it definitely needed repair!

My pantry is in the part of the house we call "the addition" (original floor plan here). It was added onto the kitchen some time after the original house was built. When we bought the place in 2009 we had the main part of the house reroofed, but the roof on the addition was still in pretty good shape so that wasn't done. Almost a decade later it's ready to be reroofed too.

Well, that's not going to happen any time soon. It looks like some repair will be necessary which means tearing into to it. For that, we'll have to wait for sunnier weather plus Dan's hand will have to be healed enough to have use of both of them. In the mean time we'll tarp it!

It's always something, isn't it?

UPDATE: The ultimate answer was to reroof it. You can see that in this blog post.

Leaky Roof © March 2018 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Master Bedroom: New Ceiling

We're in the homestretch with the bedroom/master suite remodel. The ceiling was the next to last project and it's almost done. Here's how it's coming along, starting with a before photo of the original pine tongue and groove ceiling.

Ceiling before, but after the closets were torn out.

And a close-up of one corner, where a stove pipe used to go. . . .

Where the old chimney pipe used to go

The house was originally heated with coal and there is evidence in each room of where a coal burning stove used to be. The problem with this corner is that when the stove pipe was installed, a hole was simply cut in the ceiling to accommodate the pipe, but with no structural support for the ceiling itself. Over time, the ceiling sagged in this corner. Being 90 year old tongue and groove boards, the sag is pretty much petrified into the boards now. We discussed what to do about it. Based on time and money, we'll just live with it.

Still, we want the room to look nice. For purely decorative effect, Dan wanted to add some pseudo beams made of stained 2x4s.

Dan stained 2x4s for a beam look. In the lower left you can see the
storage compartment Dan made when he began to rebuild the closet

Dan doesn't care for the tongue and groove, however, so we decided to cover the ceiling in between the beams. We like the styrofoam tiles we use in the hall bathroom, and went with that again. They look nice, are inexpensive, paintable, add a little insulation, and cover a multitude of ceiling flaws.

Styrofoam ceiling tiles

I bought the tiles from Antique Ceilings on Amazon. They have a good selection and are about half the price of elsewhere.

I alternated the pattern to prevent a striped or checkerboard look.

My problem was that they don't quite cover the space between the beams.

Cutting strips of foam tiles to fill the narrow gaps next to the beams

I cut strips to fill in the gaps. Not what the professionals would do, I know, but as my grandmother used to say, "No one will notice on a galloping horse."

My piecing doesn't really seem to show, does it?

The foam takes paint very well and with regular ceiling paint, the ceiling looks like painted tin or a molded plaster.

My apologies for the wonky picture! This is as far as I've
gotten for now. You can compare unpainted tiles in the
upper left corner. And you can still see where the ceiling sags.

Unfortunately, I have yet to finish that. It got too cold before I was done and I would rather paint when I can crack the window and put in a fan to vent the smell. I don't suppose the ceiling is going anywhere, so I'll have to wait till springtime to finish this project.

Master Bedroom: New Ceiling © January 2014

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

New Bathroom Ceiling in Pictures

Here's what we did with the ceiling.

Original  tongue & groove ceiling, height 8' 9".
That's an  old fashioned light fixture in the middle.

Dan dropped the ceiling 9 in. to put in an exhaust fan. New ceiling is 8 ft.

Plywood, to be covered with...

Styrofoam ceiling tiles. They're
lightweight, cheap, and simply glued up.

First tile was centered over the fan duct.

We worked out from there.

Seams are caulked, then the tiles are primed and painted. 

Crown moulding was next

Ceiling done.

On the plus side, the ceiling tiles were inexpensive (less than $4 apiece) and required no special tools to install. The job could easily be done by one person. It adds insulation to the ceiling and can make an ugly, stained ceiling look really good.

On the negative side, styrofoam (polystyrene) is a petroleum product. It is especially frowned upon in one time disposable products, such as restaurant take-out containers because, like all petroleum products, it is not biodegradable.

For the ceiling though, it was a good option. And because the tongue and groove ceilings in both bedrooms are in pretty bad shape, this may be the best solution for them as well. One problem with T&G is that over time, the individual boards shrink and are not air tight. I can't help but wonder if dust and the blown-in insulation from the attic doesn't sift down through them. Those rooms are still down the road and for now, I'm happy with how the bathroom is coming along.

Bathroom Remodel: New Ceiling In Pictures © January 

2013 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

The Leftover Tin Ceiling Panels

One of the tin ceiling panels in my dining alcove

When I ordered the tin panels for the dining alcove ceiling, the online manufacturer's calculator, determined that we'd need 12 panels and 2 extra. That seemed like too many so with graph paper, I calculated we'd need 10 panels. I ordered one extra. Dan, managed it with 9 panels! That left us 2 full tin ceiling panels plus about half of a third. I was delighted because there are a lot of things that can be done with these. Here's what we decided to do....

Sink cabinet, note the framed doors

Cutting out a door's center panel with a dremel tool

Oak panel removed 

Tin panel inserted

The little hole in the upper left is for a door knob. Next I need to sand, prime, and paint the frame. We may do the same thing to the door of a corner wall cabinet as well. It's a nice way to not waste the tin panels, as well as coordinate the look of my kitchen, don't you think?

The Leftover Tin Ceiling Panels © February 2012 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

Kitchen Remodel: Dining Alcove Ceiling

One of the things we liked about our original kitchen, was the tongue & groove walls and ceiling. Unfortunately we had to take some of the walls down for structural repair and insulation. These were mostly exterior walls which we finished with drywall. The remaining walls we left in tongue & groove. When it came to the ceiling, we had two ideas: leave the T&G and add decorative ceiling beams, or install a tin ceiling.

I admit I wasn't real keen on a tin ceiling, but Dan loves them. This was what actually led to our decision to give the dining alcove a different look from the rest of the kitchen. We could use tin panels on the alcove ceiling, and still have our beams in the main part of the kitchen. Plus, because the alcove area is small, 5.5 by 7.5 feet, a tin ceiling would be affordable there; in fact, it cost us less than $275.

The tin ceiling would also solve a couple of problems we had there as well. One was the holes left by two previous light fixtures, which you can see in the photo below.

A hall light used to be on the left, pantry light on the right,
but that was long before we bought the place. 

The second problem, was a couple of buckled ceiling boards....

Problem: buckled ceiling boards between the old light fixtures.

Dan fixed this by cutting between the two boards with his skilsaw and then screwing them tightly to the ceiling joist.....

Solution: screw the buckled boards to the ceiling joist

This flattened the ceiling out nicely, which we needed for nailing the tin panels to. Because we have a wood ceiling, we didn't need to first install a substrate. We could nail the panels directly to the ceiling. All we had to do was run chalk lines, and Dan used a brad nailer to attach the panels.

The panels are 24 inches square, with a 6 inch pattern. Pattern repeat is 12 inches. I figured a small pattern would be better for a small space. Plus it made it easy to know where to cut and fit partial panels.

Next came the crown moulding. This was trickier and we did mess up a little. However, I doubt anyone will notice from a galloping horse.

I had a hard time photographing the whole thing, but here's a fair shot....

And here it is in perspective with the rest of the kitchen....

One end

And the other

I think that about does it for the ceiling, except for the lights. 

Kitchen Remodel: Dining Alcove Ceiling © January 2012 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

Decorative Kitchen Ceiling Beams

For the most part, our plans for remodeling our kitchen focus on repair, function, and practicality. Some things though, are purely decorative. One thing we liked in the various kitchen idea books, was the look of ceiling beams.

Initially, we liked the idea of four, 4x6 beams, evenly spaced across the ceiling. When we considered price and weight, we turned to 4x4s. We also looked into faux beams, but woo-wee, those are expensive. In the end, we settled on four, 2x6s, to give the look of exposed ceiling joists.

Here's how the ceiling looked as we got started....

Before. Eventually that entire wall will be torn down, but for now,
only the top several courses of tongue & groove boards were removed

We figured we would space the "joists" at 27 inch intervals so that they would be visually symmetrical. What we hadn't realized, was how uneven our ceiling is. Not just sloping, but it bows and dips in several different places. When we held a board flush and level to the ceiling, there were gaps of up to an inch and a half against the wall in some places. Ah, the remodeling joys of a 90 year old house.

1st two decorative 2x6 "joists" in place.

Tearing down and re-doing the ceiling was not an option, so the next best thing, was to choose the two most level, equidistant places on the ceiling and put two of our "joists" there. The other two went against the outer walls (which were level, amazingly), as you see in the photo above. This meant wider spacing of the "joists," but we figured adapting was the easiest of our choices.

This decision actually solved another problem for us, that of moulding. Our walls and ceiling both, are tongue and groove, and the individual boards make an uneven gap where the walls and ceiling meet. Unlike drywall, which can be taped and gooped, T&G requires moulding to cover that gap. The "joists" against the walls serve as moulding, while giving the look we were going for.

The "joists" were initially toenailed in place, so for additional support, a 2x10 was notched to accommodate them ...

Notches were cut from a 2x10 to fit each of the beams.

... and fitted up against the "joists" and the ceiling like so.....

This is how it looked after we got it up.

This gives an exposed beam look, but also covers the gap where the wall was removed. (The small smooth panel you see in the ceiling, is not attic access. It's too small. We figure it was originally where their cookstove stovepipe went.)

The other side of the room was different however, because of the load bearing beam. This is the beam Dan made from one of our fallen pines, and used to replace the support post in the middle of the room. One of the "joists" had to be attached to this beam, but instead of toenailing or running a spike through the beam, he used pegs made from an oak dowel...

2 dowels were cut to serve as pegs to secure one of the 2x6 beams.

The "joist" had two holes drilled into the end, which slipped onto the pegs.

2x6 decorative "joist" attached to the load bearing beam

And here's how the whole thing looks after the ceiling was painted.....

After. Exterior kitchen wall .....

And on the other side...

After ..... and the opposite wall.

Funny how a project can evolve like that, and all because of unexpected challenges along the way. At least we're learning to simply take these challenges in stride. :)

Decorative Kitchen Ceiling Beams © November 2011 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/