Stained ceiling

The sheetrock was hung, taped, and textured, and we were ready to start working on different parts of the house.  We are really starting to see changes.   How exciting!  All of the rooms were sheetrocked except for the living room.  These walls are covered with car siding wood, which has been painted.  The ceiling in the living room is the focal point.  It has a very high vaulted ceiling in the old part and the new addition.  We decided it would be pretty cool to have a stained wood ceiling.  We wanted to have wide planks for the ceiling--about the same width as a dock plank (10 inches).  Unfortunately the stain we picked out looked best on birch wood, which is not cheap.  For everyone who knows Michael, you know he will get the nicest thing at the cheapest price, so we had to get creative to get the ceiling we wanted.  So, what did we do?  We bought birch plywood and had Brian & Jason cut it into 10in. wide pieces.  It looks great and was much more affordable.  You can't tell it is plywood at all.  

We had to prime all of the wood first with a conditioner, and then were able to put only one coat of stain on each piece.  It was a long process, but with help from my mom and Michael's dad we were able to finish in 2 nights.  Thanks guys!   It was a very smelly process, and had we all not gotten high and head aches the first night, we probably would have finished faster.  We completed all of this in Michael's parents house and not only stunk up the garage, but also their house.  Sorry!  It was freezing outside, so we couldn't open the doors to air it out for very long because we had to keep the warmth in so it would set up and stain properly.  We also were able to borrow some drying rack and sawhorses from other family to help with the drying/staining process.  Thanks to those family members for loaning the equipment!  I think in total we stained approximately 140 boards.  

The conditioner drying on some of the boards.

These are done being stained and are up to dry.

Finished product of night #1

Michael installed a gas heater to help keep the garage warm.  Good work! 

Pile to condition & stain on night #2

I do all the heavy lifting in this relationship! Ha!  

Sidenote: We are both dressed up in our pics because on night 2 we went out for Michael's office Christmas party and then bolted straight to Menards before they closed to get a heater.  We got home, installed the heater, and stacked boards from night #1 before changing into work clothes to start night #2.  Weirdos!