Demoing is my favorite part of the renovation. Despite dust and debris, it usually leaves a much cleaner and simpler state for us to work with. Most of the things we have done during the five months living in this house are demos: old carpet on the main floor, stinky carpet on the stairs, satellite dish on the roofย and wires, rusted metal awnings, broken concrete patios, window wells (here andย here), a wall or two, and a backyard garden shed. Our ranch must feel 1000 pounds lighter now.
And last weekend, garage ceiling got its turn.
Boy, did we have fun demo the garage ceiling! It was not only unwanted, but also crazily ugly. It lacks both form and function. This attic ladder is a good representative of the current state of the garage ceiling:
(Please applause for the DIY ski rack in the background – it looks so good!)
I had Slav on the ladder with a pry bar, mom’s cheer, and an utility knife. The only thing we did not have was mercy. In a couple hours, we went from this:
to this:
And to this:
Yes!
To break it down, Slav removed all the drywall ceilings with a pry bar, and I was on the ground cutting the drywall into manageable pieces using an utility knife. While I bagged all the drywall pieces in big trash bags, Slav went around and removed all the nails, screws, and ladder hardware from the bottom chord.
You can see the plywood sub-roof now:
The ridge opening is covered by ridge vent, which is designed to let moisture and heat out of the garage.
Slav also removed many random boards and lumber nailed onto the bottom chord. Many of which do not have any function.
He did leave one section intact. The southeast corner of the bottom chord has several really nice boards on top. We decided to keep it as a potential storage.
The next step will be rewiring the electrical to accommodate more ceiling lights. The current electrical situation in the garage is pretty pathetic:
After the electrical work, we will likely seal the roof with plywood for a better look. At the mean time, we are perfectly happy to look up and see our beautiful garage roof trusses:
One step closer to our cathedral ceiling!
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