After we had the new wall framing up it was time to look up and start focusing on the ceiling. First up was getting the metal beams prepped. I really wanted them wrapped in wood and as slim as possible to Mace made these wooden ladders that ran along side the I-beams. In this pic you can see he also wrapped the vertical metal support poles in wood so we could attach dry wall down the road.
Here I am helping install around some baseboard heating pipes. We had to be careful so we didn’t cut into wiring or the pipes in certain areas of the ceiling (aka why things take longer and aren’t straight forward in an old house) and here’s a close up of some custom work around the pipes.
Here are some shots of the ladders fully installed. You can also see we were working on electrical at this time with some of the blue electrical boxes in place.
We added an AC run from the upstairs master bedroom closet into the basement and here are some pics of that install.
We had to get the HVAC done before we furred out the ceiling because it was easier than trying to reach your hands through the furring strips after they’re up. Here’s a shot after the duct work is in and before furring the ceiling started.
A little repair work on a joist to slow us down.
Furring out the ceiling looks easy in theory because you’re running strips of wood across the joists, but it is VERY TIME CONSUMING and tedious. There is a lot of measuring every step of the way. The reason you fur something out is to have a smooth finished product when the joists or studs aren’t perfectly level. Our old ceiling was a textured plaster so you couldn’t see imperfections, but with new drywall the ceiling would have big waves in it if we didn’t do this. I believe the ceiling height variances around the room went from 1/4″ all the way to almost 1″ in some areas.
Here’s a before and after of the furring strips. You can also see we were installing pot lights in during this time too.
Here’s a close up of us using a laser level to make sure the furring strips around the room are at the same height.
And here’s a good close up of an installed ladder and also how we shimmed out each of the furring strips to the correct height.
You saw some of the pot lights were installed in the above pics but we did a layout of the room so we could make the best decision on where they should go given each bays dimensions.
Here’s are some pics of the pot lights going in and of them once they were installed and all fired up. We also firmed up the location for the TV and got the outlets wired.
We also added some outdoor lighting and outlets while we were at it. We were at week 15 of the reno after all of this.
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