Patio prepping

Another pre-insulation project that needed to be finished was this.
This is the front patio of our home. Deliciously long and shields the house from afternoon sun in a beautiful way.
The patio ceiling sheetrock and was falling down in places. The plan was to match the back patio which as completed last year on Memorial Day weekend!

We had an estimate for someone other than us to do the work. Lifting huge sheets up on the ceiling is not an easy job for hubby and myself. Then COVID-19 hit this country, work slowed down and we started counting pennies. It didn't make sense to blow in insulation with completing this first. We could have blocked the access from attic to patio to keep insulation from blowing out but that didn't make much sense. The insulation HAD to be blown in before it gets hot. Ach!!!!

So we come up with a plan and tackled it ourselves. This part was quick ... bulk trash pickup was coming and we filled that side yard with the bagged ceiling.

Seriously .... isn't this patio just where a person needs to live life?

Then came the fun part. Occasionally we hit a snafu with the measuring business, but this kind of stuff ensued. Make puzzle pieces ....

Say a prayer and tuck it into place. YES!!! 

Note the little white box sitting on the top of the pillar? Electrical oulet! No more extension cords hanging for outdoor lights!! 

Another really bright feature of the placement of that outlet is that it is weather protected. Alexa, or some other app on our phones, runs most of our lights. I can tuck the little dot up there and keep it safe from kids' prying fingers and monsoon storms.

We do have lights on the front of the house wall, but I'm a fan of softer mood lighting myself.

The problem of lifting heavy sheets was still not solved. Hubby is not an "ask for help" kind of person. Nope! Going to get it done and going to do it ourselves. Advice? Yes, that he will ask for. Muscle help? Nope.

After doing three or four sheets with the physical muscle kind of work, he put his thinking cap on and came up with this idea. Seriously ingenious.

Hinges from an extra door that is sitting in the garage attached this large frame device to the beam. At the bottom of it, on each 2x4 was a screw that would hold the sheet in place. We would place the piece of sheeting on the "frame" and, followed by an easy lift up (as you'll note in the next photo), nudge it into place and secure.

Being spend thrifts, he used every bit of the frame to make blocking needed so that the edge pieces could be placed.

The entire ceiling was sheeted, there might be a wee bit of insulation escape space but virtually none.

Why are we sheeting the ceilings instead of using t&g?
I wanted matching patio ceilings and we are talking a great deal of space. Tongue and groove wood would certainly be beautiful, but the cost doesn't align with our budget. To be honest, if we just waited to accumulate funds to do it that way .... none of the other projects would get done around here.

Alrighty then! Paint coming some other day.

These projects don't just happen overnite. They aren't one day deals ... they're typically worked on after a day at work or on a Saturday. They take up time, yet time that we are more than willing to give. We would rather use our time and energy creating something than hire others to do it. There are projects that we aren't capable of doing and freely admit that. Ducting, for example, was not a job for us. We will hire out what we must, but the rest ... I call it a labor of love. The satisfaction of seeing it completed is so flat out rewarding it is unbelievable!

We are ready for insulation!!!