And, the install.

As I said on Facebook, I am basically going for mother of the year here. I put actual holes in a perfectly good ceiling. Actual holes. Oh, and lots of them since we had a little trouble finding a joist*. But, man-oh-man, are the results worth it.

 *Okay, back to the joist story. I Googled the heck out of this install, and, basically, everyone just says, "find a joist." Yeah, sure. Easy as pie. Some folks talk about stud finders, or knocking, or pulling up floorboards. It's all just not really that scientific. So, what we did was multi-step. We: 

1. used a stud finder and marked where it said the joist was
2. used the standard builders rule of '16" on center' to see if the marks we made jibed with that (did...vaguely)
3. used stud finder some more
4. argued about whether our joists went side to side in the house (standard and consistent with the direction of our floorboards-running length of house/opposite way of joists) or the wrong way because it's an old-ass house
5. finally drilled some very small pilot holes in the ceiling around the marks we'd made in the stud-finding stage
6. used a piece of thin wire to explore those pilot holes (we seem to have 2 ceilings up there. likely a new one was hung during renovations, on top of the old one, so the joist is about 3" up there- longer than our drill bit)
7. went to the hardware store for longer screws
8. thought we found a joist an installed one of the hooks - and decided it was not in a joist after all
9. went up to the attic and looked to see if we could find the joists there as a guide for direction/spacing (they did run side to side but were 21" on center)
10. went back down and measure 21" increments from wall
11. stuck the wire up those pilot holes
12. installed the hook there and immediately felt the difference in the pull on the screw- viola!

To see how I got these hot Ikea items, go here, and here. To see my install prep technique, see here. 

 

Comments

[JWH]

You forgot the part where I made the obligatory "stud finder" jokes...

[Holiday]

That part goes unsaid. Not a man in America who can avoid making that joke. Probably Canada, too.