Casa Gomez and The Project From Hell

The biggest project on Michael and Sarah’s list was paneling the ceiling (yes, I said ceiling) of the dining area, kitchen, living room, and hallways to the two bedrooms. After first hearing about this, MFI and I expressed trepidation to each other. We had never applied paneling to a ceiling before, hence no experience, and Sarah’s expressed concern over how the seams should be treated so as to be invisible, had us fearful of failure long before starting. On top of this, MFI questioned whether we’d have time to finish even with staying 3 months. But once the kid’s bedroom was finished, there was no putting it off any longer.

The first step was removing the crown molding in all the areas and rooms being affected. Michael had started in the hallway to their bedroom, and he was bothered by the amount of damage to the plaster caused when the nails holding the molding pulled out. I was bothered more by whether I could match the wall’s knock down texture once this damage was repaired. Despite my nightmares about this, neither of our concerns proved significant. I developed a technique for removing the crown that minimized the nail damage, and I already had experience with a spray texture product called Ex-Pro Texture, which proved critical in repairing the damaged sections. These pictures show the crown before removal, and the wood piece I installed above the existing paneling in the dining area only. Michael and Sarah decided not to try and match existing paneling in the gap left by removal of the crown in the dining room.

I was able to complete the repair and texturing so quickly, these repaired sections were included when I repainted the affected rooms and hallways before Sarah’s 40th birthday bash on 27 June. The image below shows how the ceiling panels would look (specifically in the already-panelled dining area), as well as, how easily Michael could work at ceiling height (8′-6″)while still standing on the floor.

We had a lengthy discussion on where to start paneling, recognizing that the interior walls weren’t always square, nor could we rely on the exterior walls being much better. We settled on beginning with a full panel that was common to the dining area, the kitchen, and the longest hallway. We believed this location would minimize the number of seams, the number of panel cuts, the number of panel cuts for lights, and the number of potentially odd-shaped final cuts at the exterior walls. Once finished, we confirmed this had been the best starting point we could have selected.

MFI and I built a wooden cradle to assist us with supporting the panels for dry fitting and final installation. She had learned the cradle-trick years ago from our dear deceased friend Bill Driesslein. He had used a similar cradle to attach (by himself) 4′ x 8′ pieces of sheetrock on the ceiling of his two-story house addition. Our cradle was the first of several tools we found to be absolutely critical for this project. The second was a set of four extendable poles on loan from Michael’s dad as shown in the pictures. We placed the poles to support the panels while allowing our liquid nail application sufficient time to cure. We bought four more poles later in the project because they allowed us to install more panels in a day.

At this point in the blog, I recognize nothing shared thus far would warrant my title, so I must explain. Each day, I had to set up the work area (saw horses and tools) outside because there was no room to work in the garage. The result was every time it rained, which happened frequently, I had to move everything back into the garage out of the rain and dry it off. These panels were easily damaged (swelling) by water. After several days of rain preventing any progress at all, we started setting up on the front porch (Sarah’s brilliant idea). However, while it was nice being under cover and dry, the downside was having to clear the porch of furniture and carpet each day only to reverse the process once the workday was done. Additionally, while MFI and I were able to manage installation of the four small panels required for the hallways, there was no way we could safely manage a full sheet by ourselves. With our respective shoulder damage and diminutive size; lifting, carrying, and hoisting panels wasn’t possible. Fortunately, Michael made and took the time from his job to handle what we couldn’t. Yet, even with his help, early on we only got one panel installed per day. Once we bought the additonall poles, production increased to two panels per day, with our best day being four panels. Overall, progress was frustratingly slow. (Michael told Sarah one morning, “how audacious of us to think the ceiling project could be finished by your birthday.) Unfortunately, only three out of 27 panels required no cutting. Because I didn’t want to make any mistakes and risk wasting a panel, I took my time measuring and verifying each measurement multiple times before making a cut. This paid off but consumed a lot of time. What also took time was the daily need to rearrange furniture, take down wall hangings, and cover what couldn’t otherwise be protected by relocation. On top of all this, the outside temperatures, even when in the shade, were brutally hot and added to the irritation when things weren’t progressing well.

We initially used the dining table for applying the Liquid Nail and moved this step to the kitchen island once we started paneling in there and the living room. We placed each panel on a large paint cloth Sarah and the kids have used. Michael mostly did the application because he could easily reach across the panel. We learned early on how tricky it was getting the panels with adhesive onto the cradle without smearing liquid nail on the already-panelled ceiling. Twice, we had to clean liquid nail off of already-installed ceiling panels. Correcting this mistake was neither easy nor quick.

The first panel was installed on 1 Jul, and the last ones went up 20 days later. Along the way, I took time to fill all the nail holes with Painter’s Putty (another product and trick we learned from our friend Rueben, who helped us renovate our condo). Visible smudges in the 4th picture below indicate how many nail holes there were. I also tried two techniques for hiding (filling) the seven, long east-west seams. One used Painter’s Putty and the other Plastic Wood. The latter became my technique of choice. Here’s a pictoral recounting of our progress.

Once the panels were installed, I completed filling all the nail holes and seams, used a hand-sander to level uneven seams, then hand sanded the 60 feet of seams in prep for painting.

It took me four days to complete the seams, prep the ceiling, and paint it Whipped Cream white. I finished the final touch-ups just two days before we departed for Dallas.

In our opinion, the ceiling turned out fine, but the opinions that mattered were how Michael and Sarah felt about it. Sarah said, “it exceeded my expectations, and looks as if it has always been here.” Michael exclaimed several times, “This looks great.”

Several funny and one not funny anecdotes happened during the project that were worth sharing. First, I unconsciously was swearing a lot. Hard to believe, right? This prompted the grandkids to create a “ur sware jar” for Papa. Sammy saw it as a possible way to improve my behavior, while Happy saw it as a way to make money. Both called me out often and delighted in yelling “swear jar”! I gave up keeping track and found it easier to just deposit several dollars every couple of days. In the end, Sam was still dissappointed with my behavior, but Hap was delighted with the accumulated cash.

Second, no one could remember how the can lights in the kitchen could be dropped and removed in order to measure and mark the panel cuts. Michael climbed into the attic to determine how the fixture was attached, while MFI worked from below. I was moving between the two, because they couldn’t hear each other, when I heard MFI scream. The lights were held in place by two mouse-trap-like metal arms that opened above the ceiling and held the can tightly in place. Michael pushed down while MFI pulled and she screamed as the arms released and snapped on her fingers. Yeow! She claimed they were more like “bear traps” than mouse traps.

Third, MFI sustained an inadvertent injury while trying to help us maneuver a panel into a place in the kitchen where space constraints prevented us from using the cradle. I was standing on the counter holding one end of the panel with Michael on the other. MFI was at my end (floor level) helping us lift and rotate the panel into place when I heard her swear and grimace in pain. We were so focused on getting the panel up, nailing it, and placing the support poles that we missed the fact she was injured. I was getting down from the counter when I heard Sarah exclaim, “she needs to go immediately to the nearest urgent care.” Long story short, we ended up at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in downtown Miami at Sarah’s recommendation. Sarah had experienced great success there, and MFI received top-notch examination, treatment, and follow up. Diagnosis: the corner of the panel had pierced her open right eye. She had abraded her eyeball and cornea and the impact bruised her retina. Prognosis: should be back to normal in about two weeks. She sure looked grizzly for a while.