Cabin Ceiling - Photos

I did not blog on Sunday because we headed out for the cabin.  My husband and I worked on putting in a V-groove wood slat ceiling in the kitchen of our cabin.  I must say, it looks terrific.  It took us a day and a half of work, but the results were well worth it. 

We were able to get the ceiling up so quickly because Bill had done a lot of prep work in the weeks before our trip.  Each slat was covered with a coat of Clear Matte Polyurethane.  In an earlier blog post I had posted a picture of how he had re-purposed an old crib as a drying rack for numerous slats.  That allowed him to do numerous slats at once rather than doing a couple and sitting them on saw horses to dry. 

Anyway, once we got up there we could put up the slats without treating them.  Most of the boards required numerous cuts and measurements.  The cabin is old and the joists were not exactly sixteen inches on center.  Any mistakes we made are now a part of the history of the cabin.  All in all, I think we did a really good job.  It makes the cabin look so much brighter.  We will put on another clear coat of the polyurethane next trip up to cover the nail heads.  By the way, we used a brad nailer with an air compressor.  We did not do any hammering by hand.  From time to time we had to use a painting tool to help pry a stubborn board into the groove or if it hugged the ceiling too tightly. 

Next trip up we hope to paint the rest of the walls in the dining area and living room.  We may get the furring strips up for the new wood ceiling which will also be going in those rooms.  But before all that, we have some plumbing issues in the kitchen that need to be addressed.  We may get some of the flooring in, but I don't know if that will be on the next trip. 

Construction work is dirty hot work.  Some people are able to pull it off and look nice while they are doing it, but that is definitely not me.  I always end up looking like some bedraggled creature that the cat has dragged in.   However, when we finish a project, we always take a victory shot to show the state we were in at the end of the project.  It is easy to enjoy the ceiling, but we also like to remind ourselves of just how much work actually went into it.  So far, reminding ourselves of the hard work has not done anything to discourage us from taking on another big project. 

The old ceiling.

When we arrived, we had to mow the grass.  The grass was knee high.  It was just grass.  Not a leaf was on it.  But Sunday night we noticed a slight reddish tinge on the dogwood tree.  By Monday morning, leaves were starting to fall.  The yard was fairly well covered with leaves.  The roof had many leaves on the flatter part over the porch.  By whatever mechanism that they have, the trees decided unilaterally that the fall of leaves had  begun.  As we wended our way down the mountain, the leave continued to blow.  I also saw some Locust trees whose leaves were turning red.  It is a reminder that autumn is on its way. 

Next trip up, we will be draining the cabin for the winter.  We will be back up there after that, but will have to drain it each time.  We were up there last year in late November but came home early because the wind chill was expected to be negative five degrees, Fahrenheit.  In the higher elevations, it does not take long to get really cold.

By Sunday I will have some new photos of my art project.  Check back then to see the latest on the diorama.