The ceilings in this building have been a constant source of controversy. We were advised by Mr. Davis to rip them out because they were “worth a fortune.” The next asshole will come in and tell us to just put in a drop ceiling. Then there is the historical advocate, you MUST restore these. And then the steady stream of advice on how one would “restore tin ceilings.” I mean, YOU google that. You can’t believe how different the advice is. But the bottom line is, if we WEREN’T going to restore the ceilings and make this building glorious once again, why would we even have bought this property? We could have built a beautiful metal building on one of the endless vacant lots in Hot Springs.
Glorious TIN!
I assure you, I told the neighbor, there is no lead paint in this building. There is no way in 1920 they were using lead paint on the ceiling. There are only 17 layers of paint on this tin!!
What color was Neptune first???
Look at that green? That room was funky! If those walls could talk…… Well the middle bay (pictured right) is the room where the kitchen is going to be. The kitchen/brewery/back bar. AND as kitchen health code would have it, one cannot have a textured ceiling in a commercial kitchen, SO we are removing this tin to help replace the other tin in the other rooms, where the restoration will occur. That almost sounds biblical. “The Restoration Will Occur”. Watch out, we are gonna get out of restoration purgatory yet. Then it is gonna be pizza armageddon. Watch your waistline. So the project while we wait for the bank to decide whether or not we are small business loan worthy will be to remove this tin, and patch the other rooms, and if I can sell some of this other tin I have on ebay, we might have enough funds to refinish it before the bank gives us their blessing. The removing is very slow, it is put up on wood slats, with tiny little nails. Then it has been gobbed up with paint paint paint over the years, and it is above your head, so this job is in the running for some of the grossest work I have ever done. Did I mention the dust, rust, leaves, dirt, and animal scat that is resting on the underside of the tin? Hell, we could grow mushrooms up there. Not a bad idea. Okay, I digress.
What are you lookin at?
Once we remove all the tin, then we can repair what rotten wood we find, then we can start working on some of the other famous holes in the ceiling in the other rooms. Like here, in Exhibit A. (left)
We met our Tin Ceiling Guru. He had shown up to the shop to buy a two legged (supposed to be three) cast iron cream separator, and looked up, and we started what is usually the annoying conversation about tin. EXCEPT this dude actually knew something about tin. He actually had something to offer. Like sandblasting services! And experience! So, he was right into it. I gave him a great deal on the cream separator, and took his number. He came by later and took a piece of the tin and sandblasted it, and you can’t believe just how darn pretty it turned out. You just wait. You wait till this whole ceiling looks this pretty. You’ll be sorry you ever laughed. You’ll never use drywall again. And I’ll be a tin expert, an advisor! I’ll finally have something to talk about at the dinner table with my distant relatives when they ask me, “what have you been up to this year?”
I call this guy in the tin Neptune, but lots of people have had lots of opinions. I welcome yours, but I will probably ignore anything you say. He looks like the kind of guy that needs a good beer after some pillaging, but that’s just me. He could be a kindly old man, too. A kindly old man that used to pillage. If I were you, I wouldn’t say another word about salvage.
Neptune took a bath!!