Beautifying an Ugly View

Looking out, the view is beautiful. Looking up, not so much. 

What we wanted to do was beautify, or at least make it not as ugly, so the porch of the shop house was more inviting. The question was how? With our financial focus on the inside of the structure, money was tight. We didn't have enough old fir flooring when we rebuilt our home after the fire eight years earlier so we needed another solution to cover it up. 

One day, we noticed a bunch of bundles of long wooden strips on our neighbor's property. Then, while surfing on Facebook Marketplace, I saw a posting for "free kindling." It was obviously the same place where he found his wood. I sent a Facebook message seeking information. The response directed me to set a date, time and then show up at the old lumber mill in Bonner, just the other side of Missoula. I asked to borrow my son-in-law Kenny's long trailer and I was good to go on a weekday during my lunch break. 

Upon arrival, the forklift driver told me to pick out a bundle or two and he would load them. I chose one large bundle of 12-foot and 16-foot pine strips, plus another bundle of long, slender planks. It was obvious the wood was not sellable because it was warped and of different widths. But hey, free is free, right? After getting loaded, I strapped it down and drove back to work. 

Later that evening, the question was how to get it off the trailer. Lori and I could not move it at all. I texted the Redneck Master, Kenny, who came to the rescue. Since I already had straps around the bundles, he attached another and used the winch on the old Parowan farm truck, now his plow truck, to carefully roll the bundle off the trailer, without damaging the railing. It was yet another nod to his redneck brilliance.

With that task checked off, Lori and I spent the next several evenings using the chop saw and nail gun to cut and attach the wood strips and planks to the beams of the 8-foot by 20-foot ceiling. Since all of the boards were warped, some much worse than others, we used the saw to chop some of the warp out of them. It was a tedious process, but a fun project to do together. Again, like when we laid flooring in the house, Lori showed off her ability to use the chop saw and now, the nail gun. Like she exclaimed several times, "If my Dad could only see me now!"

After lots of measuring, cutting and nailing over several days, we had an almost finished product. All that was left to do was to stain it. As a guy who has enjoyed painting or staining 15 to 18 houses over my lifetime, staining is not for the weak hearted. Let me clarify. Staining a house isn't that bad at all. I've stained six of them. But this project called for staining a ceiling above our heads instead of the side of a building. It was messy and sticky and just plain no fun. However, in the end, we had ourselves a good-looking, dark walnut final product, similar in color to the deck posts and building trim. And more importantly, it no longer detracted from the view looking out into the Ponderosa pine forest.