Renovation Project - Installing ceiling joists

Renovation Project - Installing ceiling joists

We are waiting for the joists again today, we cannot really start any big jobs until they arrive, so we have a discussion on furniture, and John suggests where we can have the TV, I explain that we are not going to have a TV, as the room will look so nice; I don’t want one ruining the room. I have never seen anyone look so upset, if I had not been laughing so much at Johns crestfallen face, I would have felt really sorry for him!

The discussion continues about the TV and all John is bothered about is being able to watch the football in a comfortable room, my suggestion about going to the bedroom or maybe the barn does not go down well, I do relent and say we can think about it, but now we also have to think about getting a TV package, we will look at some of the Virgin Broadband Deals later as this was not something I had ever really considered but I suppose it would be quite nice on those cold winter evenings to be able to watch something on TV curled up in front of the roaring fire.

The joists finally arrive in a massive wagon (we have upset the neighbours again) John and the wagon driver carry them into the house, and the guy is really pleasant and makes no comment on the fact that this was the third delivery date given to us, with no notice that the date would change, oh well c’est la vie!!!!!

We get them in to the house and have the fun of getting them in to place, they are so heavy. John has already made spaces in the walls to fit one end and the other end is going on joist hangers.

This is a heavy job and luckily Johns head is very strong, as he is having to put one end in place, then line up the other end (with his head and hands!) whilst I put the acro in place underneath it! This is one of those days where there is lots of shouting and swearing!

It is also one of those days where many stupid things are said, one example is:

John - get the ****** joist in place,

Me – how do I work it?

John – You know how to ****** work it

Me- If I knew how to ****** work it I wouldn’t be asking you

John and Me - ******** ******* ******* ****** (you can chose your own swear words for the stars as whatever you chose was probably said!)

I manage to use the acro’s and the first one is in place, the day sort of carry’s on in this way, other than when we stop for breaks and we go back to being a normal couple!

It takes us 2 days to get all of the joists up, but we have a real sense of achievement once they are done, it also means that we can now get the ceiling in place, which should be the end of all of the really bad dust, my only concern is do we remove all of the big cobwebs (I was actually convinced that these were holding up the old ceiling at one point, yes they were that big!) John convinces me that if there were any spiders still in them they would be able to escape.

A big tip is to treat all of the new joists with a preventative rot and woodworm treatment, yes they are new and have no problems, but this will ensure that there are no problems in the future.