Drywalling the dining room ceiling

Sunday, Aug. 21: I'm a little late posting this, as I've been scrambling to finish the stucco on the outside of the house.  I am fortunate to have a big, strong son who's a good sport to come over every once in a while and help me – in exchange for a steak dinner.

We rented a "drywall lifter," a device that holds the extremely heavy sheets of 5/8" drywall against the ceiling while you drive enough screws to hold them in place.   If such a lifter existed 30 years ago when I built my home in Texas I didn't know about it – my brother Paul helped me hold the sheets up with our heads while we nailed them into place.  Needless to say, you have to have a strong neck to do that.

Below, a short video showing Chris hanging drywall.  We completed the job in less than 3 hours.



With a few more patches of drywall around the window, this dining room will be ready for finish work. I plan to put crown molding at the wall tops, therefore the top corners just need to be rough-finished with mesh tape and drywall compound. 

The biggest challenge will be blending the two ceilings together.  The existing ceiling under the bridge has a "knock-down" finish.   I plan to trowel over that and apply drywall compound in as many coats as it takes to get a perfectly smooth, seamless ceiling.  Then I will spray the surface with an "orange-peel" texture.