Suspended ceiling

Looking down the stairwell, before we put in the guardrails.

The finished side, before the electrical housings are threaded in behind the rafters, and before the insulating Deltareflex aluminum layer is stapled on.

The skylights before Jean-Luc put up his special open windowframes.

The UM Grizzlies cap, always a good choice to protect the hair from sheetrock filaments.

In at least two senses of the word: suspended in time, because there was a hang time for a long while with our ceiling, where there was work in other places to finish before attacking the summit of our little house, and suspended because the system of rafters (©Clow/Hingamp) is a second skin for the roof, quite similar to the way that Brunelleschi made his Duomo. On a much simpler scale of course, here at Maffay. The collective input on the ceiling as it takes shape has required the creativity and labor of most of the neighborhood and Quebriac too: Gaël and Romain for the skylights, Rich and Simon for the design of the entire structure and its little breathing eyes, and tiny Carolina for flitting among the rafters to put up the first layers of insulation, Simon and Olivier for a consultation about ideas for making it even tighter, and recommandations for stainless steel staples, M. Yves for the first guardrail and a solution for covering the stairwell, Fabrice for the opening for the future chimney, Pierre-Yves for motivation and the horrible messy work of the second layer of insulation, Sandra for motivation and support and more of the same horribly prickly insulation work, Romain for cutting pegs on a Saturday morning, Jean-Luc who devised a beautiful system for skylight boxes that are sloped out to let in more light, and Gabriel and the kittens who have gamely trucked up the stairs every night to sleep under the project as it continues.

We’re almost there, a few more layers of insulation, a few more pegs, a few more rafters, and it will be ready to (sheet) rock.

More pictures to come.