The rest of the dropped ceiling

After the laundry room ceiling was in place, we then went to drop the ceiling above the tub. That was easy enough. We dropped it to be about 10" lower than the rest of the bathroom ceiling for a stepped effect.

Then came the rest of the bathroom ceiling.

We decided to do this in three parts, since the space was larger than the laundry, and would no doubt be the heaviest pieces we'd have to hold in place while leveling them- before nailing.

The good news was that we discovered that since the door to the laundry was separated by a wall, we didn't have to match the height of the laundry ceiling as we had previously thought. That was good news as we could raise the height by a full 3", giving a little more exposure to the top of the window, where we want to not crowd out our trim.

The hard part was that the ceiling on the east side of the room turned out to be a tad bit trapezoidal at the top of the room, off by about 3/4"- smaller closer to the East wall-- which was lucky for us, because if the trapezoid was larger towards the wall, I have no idea how we would have gotten the ceiling frame piece in at all. Serendipity.

As it stands, we lifted the first piece and set it on top of our two ladders, then we climbed up, lifting the section with us, with the air hose for the nail gun delicately draping over Hub's left foot where he could reach down for it, not dropping the ceiling on his head which would no doubt throw me off of my ladder as well, killing me instantly.

We both lived.

The smartest thing we did was get 4 2x4's in place in each corner before we got started so we could reach over and lodge the 2x4's under the floating ceiling while we adjusted the height and measured for level. (note from DH: That was smart, but the smartest thing we did was get a chop saw so that DW could make those nice accurate cuts that allow tight clearances and ceilings that almost don't need supporting.)

Those 2x4's were sorely needed.


Once this piece was in place the next two were easy. On the last piece we decided to be a little clever.

The last piece was the rectangular area above the entry to the laundry/bathroom, about 42" x 5'. We decided to raise this area an additional 8" to give the additional step down. Then I nailed the floating corners into 2x4's I dropped from the original ceiling joists. Damn, no picture. Maybe later today I'll get one (check back soon as we'll be adding it to this entry).

Bathroom almost ready.

Building a complex closet.

It shouldn't be this tough. I mean, it's a closet. But it's a freestanding closet that needs to be built before we can drop the rest of the ceiling, and it needs to coincide with the new HVAC ductwork running above the bathroom/laundry. (laundry north, bath to the south)

The duct work comes down about 10" from the joists on the East side of the room and covers the entire span from the North side all the way to the South side of the room, so we have to build the closet frames with 'cutout' areas.

We also have to build all three sides separately. The long wall (the North side- pink, green and blue panels in the plan below) will likely need to be built in three sections, because the extension of the closet to the West is the framing for the doorway into this laundry area.



The other two sections, the east (yellow) and the south wall (bottom blue), shouldn't be too much trouble as they'll both be one piece wall units... but sheesh, the North wall's gonna be a b*tch, particularly because of where the adjoining pieces connect. The first is in the middle of the closet door, so that needs reinforced.

I'm thinking we build the door frame area first, then the wanky ductwork wall, then fill the spaces in between with what we've been calling "ladders". This way we can put the easiest piece in last and make sure it fits on both sides.

Oh, yeah, the floor's not level either. It slopes to the east, so we're making sure the closet door opening will have to be measured particularly well, and capped on the underside of the top opening with an additional 2x4 so we can shim it to ensure it's level. This entails making the closet door opening an additional 1.5" tall to start with, but I think the additional bracing will be helpful in joining our various walls together as well.

If this sounds confusing, imagine what it feels like in my head. Then we get to figure out how to frame in & drop the ceiling to match the ductwork height.

Ugh.

This last picture is looking through the South framing wall of the bathroom toward the North.

Hello, ducts.


Day-After Notes from Mark: H is really like this. She draws out everything given a chance. It actually really helps keep us on the same page. We discovered one wrinkle, however. That drawing is about 3.5" off on the hallway to the west of the closet. Basically, we're not going to be able to run that North wall as one continuous span from east to west. We're going to have to build out the door jam 3.5" north. A clumsy miscalculation while framing weeks back now requires and elegant bit of problem solving.

A few walls are built and leaning up out of the way. We ought to be able to finish this one today or tomorrow. We'll get pics up of the "elegant solution" when it's up.