Latest on the Cabin Upgrade

A ceiling full of slats.

Autumn is here and once again we have kicked into high gear trying to get another cabin project completed before winter sets in. Last year we put had put up a tongue and groove wood slat ceiling in the kitchen.  This year we added the same treatment to the living room and dining area.  It took six days of grueling work, but we managed to complete the project. 

We finally finished the ceiling.

October is a great time to be up in the mountains.  The weather was cool but not so cold that you needed a hat and gloves.  I am glad that we chose to do this project in autumn because I don't think we would have been able to keep up the pace needed to complete the project if the weather had been hot.  Most of the time we were at the cabin the daytime temperature was in the low seventies (Fahrenheit) but by nightfall the temperatures were dipping into the fifties and mid-forties overnight.  We only built a fire in the wood stove one day, and that was as much to heat up the new stove pipe and burn off the stove wax while we could have the doors open to ventilate as it was for warmth.  While we have the stove heated up, Bill made a batch of homemade English muffins. 
 

Kitchen and dining area are separated by a beam.

Most of the week, we started working on the ceiling as soon as the breakfast dishes were cleared and worked straight through until dinnertime.  We began with the furring strips.  We would drill
pilot holes spaced equally down the strips, drilling through and entire packet at once before removing the plastic wrapping.  Then we would take them inside.  My husband was on the ladder and I was standing on the floor.  I would pass him up a furring strip.  He would get it positioned, then I would hand him the drill and he would drill through the pilot hole into the ceiling.  The pilot whole was necessary because the old wood was so hard that he could not drive a screw into it without the pilot hole.  Even with the additional drilling, we went through seven bits on the driver.  The wood was almost too tough for the driver.  It kept overheating.  Anyway, once he had drilled the pilot hole he would hand me the drill and I would hand him the driver and he would use screws to anchor the furring strips to the ceiling.  Then he would hand me the driver and I would hand him another furring strip.  The drill and driver were not that heavy, only a couple of pounds apiece, but keeping this up hour after hour made our arms and shoulders ache.  I think there were six screws in each furring strip.  We were able to get all the furring strips up in one day, and shim half the ceiling.

The ceiling was neither straight or flat.  It took the better part of two days to shim the furring strips that are the support for the tongue and groove slats.  We brought two packages of shims with us.  We used them all, plus some we had leftover from when we put up the ceiling in the kitchen.  In some places, the ceiling was so bowed that we had to use small pieces of the tongue and groove slats as shims.  Some people would have just nailed up furring strips and started adding the wooden slats, but that would have been a big mistake. The ceiling would have been wavy.  It would have been very noticeable.  We ran the slats the length of the area.  This created the illusion that the room is longer than it really is.  I have heard that this is sometimes called the bowling alley effect.  Since the cabin is so small, it really makes the space look larger.
 
We used a string from corner to corner and around the perimeter to make sure the ceiling was level.  We also checked with a level and an eight foot straight edge.  We did the best that could be done.  When you look up at it from the floor, the ceiling looks level; if you look at it standing on a ladder, you might notice a slight upward curve at one end.  I think we might have had to shim that edge of the room with a two by four to get it right.  In old buildings, things are rarely square, plumb, or flat.  For all intents and purposes, the ceiling has been completed in the living and dining area.  It looks flat, or at least close enough.  I don't think a better job could have been done.  At the end of the second day of shimming the ceiling we finally moved on to putting up the tongue and groove slats.  I think we managed to put up three rows of the wood slats before knocking off for the evening. 

One thing we found out about the tongue and groove slats is that not all slats are equal.  Some have knot holes that go all the way through.  Other slats may be warped.  Or, there could be damage to either the tongue or the groove of any particular piece.  It was not just a case of opening a package of slats and start nailing.  Each  board had to be inspected individually.  When we grew tired, it was hard to keep focused.  We finally decided that we would both inspect the board and agree that it was accetable before nailing it too the ceiling. 

For putting up the wooden slats, my husband would be standing on one ladder and I would be standing on another.  The slat was slipped onto the previous slat and nailed into place.  The tongue and groove slats were nailed in with a brad nailer that was hooked up to an air compressor.  It took about seven nails per wood slat; sometimes more in a particularly difficult area.  In parts of the room we were able to run slats down the length of the room; only pausing to cut the last board to length.  In other areas, such as the location of the attic entrance, we had to stop and cut the board to size and start on the other side of the hatch.  After we had completed the ceiling and added the trim, my husband went back and added slats to the attic hatch. 

While Bill was working on the hatch, I went out to pick apples.  There was a bumper crop of apples this year.  Every tree in the area was loaded.  Many had fallen, but the trees were still full.  I picked hundreds of apples.  We brought back a large crate full.  There were still apples on the trees and apples all over the ground.  I could have brought back plenty of apples for making apple cider.  I'll have more about that on the next blog. 

The trip was not all work.  We took a day off to go to the Wine and Garlic Festival.  We have been to it for several years running.  This year was their twenty-fifth anniversary.  It was a nice day out.  There was a possibility of rain, but once again the rain held off.  We went early, and since it there was a possibility of rain it was not very crowded for the first couple of hours.  We always enjoy this festival.  It is so much cooler in October that it is a joy to be outside. 

Well, I am back home now and trying to get caught up after the trip.  I am hoping to be back crafting soon.  I have one more figure that I would like to complete before Halloween.  I will be blogging about that soon.