I'm a diy'er with a good amount of experience in the past with renovations. My current remodel will replace a load-bearing wall with an embedded steel beam. It turns out that the steel beam is slightly thicker than the 2x8s in the ceiling (7.93"). My options, as I see them, are 1) use furring strips (or other shim) on the joists to bump out the ceiling drywall, or 2) don't shim, and instead put drywall up close to the beam. I would then use drywall mud (or some other plaster-like substance) to cover the beam. Option 1 seems simple, but I'd like to explore option 2, since these are 7'6" ceilings, and I'd like to not lose the .75" of height for a furring strip, if possible. For option 2, I understand that mud by itself will not be sufficient, so I'm assuming a wire grid would be required, and I'm assuming it would have to be papered over somehow, though I don't know if a bunch of overlapping tape run in parallel would work. Any tips?

What type of caulking would be best for a leaky ceiling I have a very small leak right where the edge of the ceiling meets the wall the wall is brick the ceiling is popcorn ceiling leak only happens when it rains? as you can see in the picture i uploaded the area circled in red is what im talking about and the red line is the seam between the brick wall and the popcorn ceiling. this isnt my pic i grabbed it from google as i dont have a working camera it only leaks when it rains which isnt often as i live in arizona and when it does leak its a small drip drip drip. since the wall in question faces outside and is made of brick i can only assume the leak is outside but cant see where the leak is outside i was thinking maybe some caulking on the inside would solve the issue i figured i could just buy some good caulking or some flex seal and just caulk/seal the 2 small areas of the seam where i see the leak havent fixed it yet wanted to ask the pros first also the leak only happens in 2 small areas both areas the length of a shoe box thanks for your time im new here also if it matters before i moved in the brick on the inside of the house was painted white to match the ceiling