Hodge Podge Lodge: White-washed pine ceiling

I had taken hundreds of photos from our week at the cottage and was hoping to share some of them with you. Imagine my horror on Thursday when I went to review some of them AND THEY WERE GONE!

As near as I can tell, 215 photos up and vanished. I don't know why. I don't know how. It's not like the whole card is emptied... just the photos from this week. I suspect my SD card is corrupt somehow. I know the photos were there, because I was going over them showing my mum some of the sunset photos I had taken.

*SOB*

So, I have a lot fewer prospective posts for you, but I will bravely try to keep you interested with the few remaining photos I have (thank heavens I had another SD card I could switch to. And thank my lucky stars these photos weren't something irreplaceable, like a wedding! EEP!!)

I had taken tonnes of photos of the progress of our living room ceiling installation: photos of me individually painting the boards, photos of the guys on their ladders installing each frustrating plank. But, alas, they are gone.* I can at least show you the finished product.

This is the view from the kitchen towards the living room (Yes, I know they're all one big room. Kindly grant my my little delusions.)

Isn't it so much better than the soffit? (WHO PUTS SOFFIT ON THE CEILING!?! A madman, That's who.)

Here's looking up from living room towards the kitchen (delusional!). I also painted the beige flanges of the pot lights white so they'd be less conspicuous against the white of the ceiling.

And this is how it looks with the princess sitting in the kitchen. It's clean. It's bright. It doesn't allow spiders to creep thru the holes.

We're not yet completely done. We still need to cut and paint some boards to add around the edge as trim to hid the cut edges. I think it's going to look absolutely smashing when it's all done. It's already a million times better than it used to be.

Thanks so much to Dad and the Captain for the days they spent up on ladders getting this beast of a ceiling installed!

*2012-07-11 UPDATE: PHOTOS FOUND!!

I found my photos! Woo Woo! Here are some of the other views that I wanted to show you:

This is the painting station outdoors, where each individual 3" plank was painted. (All 114 of them!) I just used our leftover white KILLZ primer for the boards. I was ok if the coverage wasn't 100% because I was hoping to still see some of the grain thru the paint. The KILLZ would also seal in the knots in the knotty pine so they wouldn't bleed thru (in theory, at least) and it was a flat white, which was perfect for the ceiling. There was never any question though: the boards needed to be painted. Natural wood panelling is a little too "70's rec-room" for my liking.

Here's Sewing Mom adopting her alter-ego "Painting Mom" for the day. She'll probably kill me for posting a photo of her in her 'painting clothes' but it can't be helped.

The first board is nailed into place! The captain got a nailgun for Father's day. This was essential for the ceiling project. AND I get to build lots of fun things with it afterwards, too. Win-win! There was actually a bit of a delay between painting and nailing because we forgot to bring brads for the nail gun so Dad and the Captain had to head into town to pick some up.