When I last left off I had pulled down two layers of ceiling tiles in the room that will become Frank's man cave back in February. I had left up the last of the furring strips to stabilize the crumbling plaster and it looked like this:
Life got in the way and while the project was on hold for so long huge chunks of plaster came down so the ceiling looked like this:
It seemed like the best thing to do was to scrape the rest of the plaster off the lathe before we put up the plywood for the tin ceiling. While I was taping, mudding and sanding in the hallway Frank pulled down the rest of the plaster and furring strips. It was a huge mess but the ceiling was now ready to put up the plywood substrate.
Next, while I was painting the hallway, Frank tackled pulling up the nasty carpet and carpet pad. We knew we were going to get rid of it for hardwood so it was pretty gross from ceiling debris by this time.
At the end of Saturday the room looked like this:
This whole side wing on the house has green floor tiles from when it was a small neighborhood grocery store. They are pretty stained and damaged but it is neat to see the evidence of the house's past.
With the ceiling plaster and carpet gone it was time to get the plywood up on the ceiling. The tin ceiling we ordered is a traditional nail up type so we need the plywood to act as a substrate to nail into. We rented a drywall lift from Home Depot on Sunday for the job. Our local store didn't have one available so we had to go to one a little farther away but it was worth it.
We cut the plywood so that the ends would meet on ceiling joists and used the drywall lift to maneuver the plywood into place. Since Frank is tall and can reach the ceiling without a step ladder he was in charge of screwing the plywood into the joists.
While Frank was doing that I was down on the floor pulling out all of the carpet tack strips as well as the billion or so staples that secured the carpet pad to the floor.
At the end of the day on Sunday the room looked like this:
We still have a good bit to do like paint the walls, install the tin ceiling and lay the hardwood but it seems like we are getting somewhere. As Frank said the room looks like it has gone from someplace that should be condemned to a room that is under construction.