The ceiling fix is complete and the new lights are installed!  My contractor brother (Dean) was right that the job would take about four days – most of those were spent waiting for things to dry.  To review, on days one through three he demolished the old ceiling and put up the new drywall with the subsequent tape and mudding applied.  He also wired for a new light fixture – we had the choice of going for one with several lamps coming down or simply having two or three single drop lights.   You’ll see what we chose soon!

After all the mud was dry and the ceiling was ready to texture and complete, another heavy coat of joint compound or drywall mud was applied.

We picked up a texture brush at the local hardware store.

Dean dipped the brush into the mud so both the brush had mud and the ceiling had mud and began to tamp it down (up) hard.

Once he finished the entire wet surface, he did a few spot checks so there was no visible interruption between the old and the new.  He believes we may have to eventually paint so the entire ceiling will be the same shade of white, but so far it’s not too distracting.

Dean then moved on to the lighting.  First he connected the neutral (or white) wires from the ceiling wire to the light fixture and tied it off with wire connectors.  Then the white wires and the black wires were connected.

After all the wires were connected, he began to actually put up the fixture and then moved to the fixture in the kitchen.

(That’s me helping by handing some parts to him that actually held the light in place.)

And VOILA!  Two new beautiful light fixtures … only the ceiling fan behind this pendulum light was an older one, but the other photo I took wasn’t as good so you’re really seeing only one new one here.

And the only damage was to the watermelon which got some drywall splatter on it.

We ate it anyway and it was delish!