No longer having the help of my parents, progress on the rest of the ceiling boards went a bit slower. Luckily, though, my parents had helped us prep so many boards we had a good stock to keep us going. I really enjoyed watching the ceiling materialize as we put up more and more boards.
With a few boards up on one side of the ceiling, we had to start putting some boards up on the other side so we could make any needed adjustments along the way to assure both sides would align evenly as we made our way towards the peak of the ceiling. You want to make sure you end up with the final board on each side at the peak about the same width so the sides look symmetrical. This may require a bit of tweaking as you go as sides never really are fully symmetrical! At least our trim piece at the ridge would cover minor inconsistency. In the end, we were pretty even, though, as no real adjustments were needed to have the peak line pretty centered. Nice!
Putting up the ceiling boards was similar to installing the wall boards, except in this case we were working overhead – an added challenge! We’d do a dry fit of each board, making sure it would install correctly, if necessary trim it to the correct length, apply adhesive to each rafter where the board would fall, then nail the boards through the tongue at each rafter. Sometimes, if the board was wonky and had some warpage, we’d have to use a buffer board to hammer it in place or use the buffer board and chisel to pry it in place for a tight fit. As with the walls where we had to cut boards to fit around outlets, light fixture boxes, etc., we similarly had to cut a few boards to fit around our smoke alarms and ceiling fan fixture box. More fun times with the jigsaw!
Now, on to the loft side. These boards were only, at most, 10 feet long, and we had the loft platform to work on, so much easier to install this portion of the ceiling. It’s definitely exciting to be covering up the wool insulation, as our tiny house was smelling just a bit like a tiny barn. 🙂 You’d climb into either loft and think, “Why do I smell animal?… oh, right!” Cracked me up every time. I love the wool insulation!
Since we have a roof window over our bedroom loft, on the side of the ceiling where the roof window is, the boards were even shorter – six feet on the left side of the roof window, and less than two feet on the right side. These were waaaaayyy easier to install than those long 14 footers. I had a grand time picking out my favorite sections of boards for those short little two(ish)-footer boards since they’ll be right over my head when lying in bed. So many great grain swirls and little knots in those bits of boards. My bedtime view will be fabulous!
Unfortunately, we were a few prepped boards shy of finishing the ceiling, so it’s back to sanding and sealing more boards. But, so close…
Wow! That last photo is amazing, you two. The whole thing is a little more amazing with every post.
Thanks, Curtis!!! It’s so nice to hear other folks like the tiny house, too! Sometimes the whole build can be really overwhelming and seem to be coming along so slowly, so it really helps to hear positive support like yours!