It's Finished!!..almost. My Basement Ceiling, 2 Years in the Works. ~ #longoverdue

A little home-made moonshine Christmas gift to get this party started!

The wife and I bought our house as a foreclosure. It was built in the 40's and probably hadn't seen an update since the 70's. The basement had old school wood paneling on the walls, and the ceiling was that old drop down tile, not the long rectangle kind like you see in commercial buildings, but the small square kind with holes in it. Regardless, it was time to bring this house back to the future.

We had all the walls and ceiling torn apart and replaced with sheetrock. Unfortunately, the guys doing the work weren't the greatest (ya get what ya pay for) and the ceiling was left somewhat un-finished in terms of proper sanding and finishing. Luckily the walls were, which we ended up painting. To paint the ceiling would have been a nightmare, it would have looked terrible. So after all of our stuff was moved in, sanding it and then painting it was out of the question. So what do we do? Well, if ya can't fix it, cover it up!....with STYLE!

We found some decently priced unfinished tongue and groove Pine boards that we could stain to our liking. Done deal! The biggest problem is that it was mostly a two man job, and I am not two men. This meant slow progress until a buddy could come in and assist. Add in my laziness, the fact that when a buddy does come over to help, all I want to do is drink beer and converse, and lastly, my ADD getting me off track about every 2 seconds. This project has been in the works for the past two years and has been a topic of conversation with about every guest that steps foot into my basement. Well I tell you h'wat (that's my Hank Hill version if ya want to re-read it in his voice) those conversations are now going to be about how damn good this ceiling looks!

There was less than a quarter done last week and after my good buddy Piter came over and helped for 8 hours, I had finished the rest the next day after another 4 hours or so. Measure (twice), cut (once) ;) glue, align, and nail. The boards were rather long, so it was almost impossible with one person to try and align the boards without one end of the board flopping down due to gravity. The second hands definitely made it a much easier process.

When you don't have a jig saw, you get creative. This was the best method for us to custom cut out for around the can lighting. It worked great!

I had some boards pre-stained, and others I will stain soon...but now I am questioning the color choice. I went with a soft brown, but maybe will switch it up. It is technically my man cave. I have a bar, sectional couch, and big tv with surround sound down here...even though my man cave is being over run with kids toys. If you want to suggest a color scheme or idea, please do so!

All that is left is to finish the color, and nail on the trim. Looking at a crappy sheet rock job for the past two years has been annoying, so even though it's not 100% finished, I am super over the moon to have all the boards put up for a semi-finished look. OH!, that long white beam in the middle is a steel support beam that has been sheet rocked over, but I plan on covering it with wood as well to make it look like a massive log beam. Should the color of that match the tongue and groove color? Or be something different? Let me know and thanks for reading. Steem on!

p.s. I couldn't leave out the picture of my amazing wife who was eager to vacuum up the mess we made. There was saw dust everywhere and I probably wouldn't have done the cutting in the house if it weren't sub-freezing temperatures outside. She was happy it was 'finally' done, and I was happy that she was happy to clean it up! Ha! Happy wife happy life.