This is my first home improvement project. My wife and I have always wanted a home gym and when we bought our new house we had a big utility room in a section of our basement that was pretty rough looking and we decided that we were going to do it and turn it into our home gym. I meticulously put up new framing on the bare walls, added approx. 8 new outlets and re wired everything to be on it's own new circuit. Also got rid of the two light fixtures that had pull cords, and installed 4 recessed can lights and have them all on a single switch, which also is on the new circuit. I've got the dry wall up on the walls and am now working on the ceiling. One thing I did not do when buying dry wall was to buy bigger panels for the ceiling. I've got 4 packs of 8x4 dry wall panels to finish up the ceiling. However, I want to run the panels perpendicular to the joists to avoid making any more seams than absolutley necessary. The problem I've run into is the spacing for the joists. The spacing on the last joist is approx 2 1/2 inches longer than the dry wall panel. I've got furring strips, but I already have part of the ceiling up. (There's technically two sections of the ceiling which is separated by duct work which drops down about a foot. I've got the panels up on the one side, as it wasn't as large and I could hang the panels parallel to the joists nicely by adding a furring strip to the inside of the joist) So on the ceiling that is on the other side of the ductwork, there is a lot more space, which is why I think that running the panels perpendicular would be the better option. But is there any way to effectively deal with the joist spacing without sacrificing the integrity of the ceiling panels? I was thinking about possibly cutting some 2x4s to fit between the joists (running perpendicular) and space them 16 inches from center, and have them raised enough to where the furring strip would attach to the bottom but still remain flush with the bottom of the remaining joists and screw the end of the panels into those furring strips. Is this something that would work, or should I just go ahead and cut the panels to fit the joists as they are currently spaced? It's a tough situation because I want it to look as nice as possible and not have to worry about covering up seams without having to go get the bigger dry wall panels. Thanks in advance for any advice or tips!

:eek: I am trying to pinpoint all the places where my former tenants let cats wee on the floors or spray the walls. We have ripped out carpet, padding and baseboards. Did the black light test the other night with horrifying results. There were so many little spots and big patches along with pretty much every area where the baseboards were glowing yellow-white! Now I'm going back through to do close up sniff tests of suspicious areas to see if I can tell what is possibly old cat urine and what is maybe adhesive for the baseboards or something else that is glowing.....before treating the entire place. A big concern is that they painted almost every wall, so I can't really tell if the cats sprayed somewhere behind the paint or not. (almost all areas of where the baseboards were have glowing stuff on them, but I can't believe the entire house would be sprayed!) My question is has anyone tried lightly sanding off the top layer of paint if you or someone before you painted over the cat spray? I'm thinking this would make it show up better under black light for identification as well as make the offending uric acid and salts easier to treat and get rid of. Thoughts? Btw, I think I may have found a true solution for the problem with the "123 Odor Free" product line from Just Rite cleaning products. Highly active bacteria cultures that "eat" the urine and actually eliminate it. No need to use shellac or Kilz or anything like that afterwards, which evidently develops tiny cracks big enough to let odor molecules through anyway. Has anyone tried it yet? I would love to know your experience with the 123 Odor Free! Thanks!