Texturing ceilings

First a bit of explanation.  Today I'll write about texturing ceilings.  You should reasonably ask how I got to this point, since clearly things have happened previously.  Indeed, there was a lot of work to get to this point.  In coming days, I'll go both forwards to tell about the progress on this house.  And, I'll go backwards to tell what has happened to this point with this house, how I bought it, and a little about another house.  Sort of like a Quentin Tarantino film where things don't happen in chronological order.

 

Anyway. This has been a bit of a long weekend. I had no plans to texture the ceilings in the four bedroom, two bath house, about 1600 sq.ft. altogether. Its a ranch with a basement. Two beds, a bath, living room and kitchen up, two beds, a bath, den, and utility room down. Proper egress windows downstairs, which is a big plus, in my mind, and a little unusual for the area.

 

Actually, I had no plans at all for the ceilings. But somewhere along the course of closing the deal, my mortgage broker, who does rentals himself, mentioned “you should get rid of those popcorn ceilings.” Personally, I don't care one way or another about popcorn ceilings. But I know lots of people think they're dated. And we're trying to get a good appraisal so I can get out of this hard money loan. So, I had the painter scrape them off. He included that in his bid. After they're cleared off, he asks, “so, what are you going to put back up there?” “Nothing”, was the plan. He was right, though, that they didn't look too good. “Martin (the tile guy and the painter's friend) can do texture”. Unfortunately, the bid was $500. If it had been $300 I'd have paid, despite being over budget. But $500, no way.

 

Now, I really, really dislike sanding drywall. And there was a lot of sanding. A little googling turned up a Porter Cable drywall sander. Its a lot like a weed wacker with a disk sander on the end. If that sounds unpleasant, let me add its a lot like a gas powered weed wacker you hold up against the ceiling. I'll admit I was pretty skeptical about this thing. Especially when I found out the only place that rented them was Home Depot. The one nearest the property didn't have one, but Quebec does, they said. Nope, its broken. The one nearest my house said they had one, and it worked. So stopped by Friday night to buy a few things and check it out. Yep, its the Porter Cable one. Nope, it doesn't work, the guy said. But Lakewood has one, and it works. So, 8:00 AM Saturday morning, I'm there. Yep, got it. Includes a shop vac, but you have to buy the sanding disks, the pad behind the disks, and the bags for the shop vac. OK, no problem. Yes, leftovers are returnable. So, with a handful of consumables and the sander, I head to the property.

 

Amazingly, the thing actually works. It really does a number on the loose bits.

 

Unfortunately, 15 minutes into the work, like halfway through the first bedroom, the shop vac quits. Fortunately, I had my own. So, called the store and told them what was happening, and proceeded. This thing is seriously dusty, even with the shop vac going. Respirator and safety glasses were certainly in order. I sprang for high quality respirators with the last rehab, and I was sure glad to have it today. Eight hours, a few patches, and a lot of dust later, the ceilings were smooth.

 

It was so dusty I wondered if the dust was getting into the vac. I found out when I casually grabbed the shop vac and it didn't budge.

 

Dropped it off. Not sad to see the back end of that beast, but it SURE beats the sander-on-a-stick. The Porter Cable is over $500, but Rotoblast makes one for about $200. May be on my buy list for the next project that involves any significant drywall work (the bathroom in my residence, most likely.)

 

That was Saturday. Today was the texture. In the middle of this project, I'm trying to build my wife a new arbor. One of her's was consumed by a killer silver lace vine. I've read you should occasionally trim silver lace vines all the way to the ground, and I'm coming around to that approach. So, knocked off early enough on Saturday to make some progress and almost finished up Sunday morning. Just need to add a few more lag bolts and this will be done.

 

It was about 11:00 before we got to the property. On the last rehab, my wife helped a lot. This one, I've been trying to avoid that. But the yard needs some help, and that's her area. While I was working on the arbor, she dug up a bunch of day lilies to put in the beds at this property. So, I had her help today. Barry also came by for a while. He helped with schlepping heavy stuff up and down the stairs and with putting up the masking film on the walls. Finally, about 3:00, it was time to fire up the texture guy. Like painting, the work is in the prep. Between sanding, patching, wiping down the ceiling, and masking, there was much more time prepping. I did a knockdown texture on these ceilings. So, spray it on, wait 15-20 minuets, and then knock it down with a wide putty knife. Not too long after getting started, the day lilies were all in, so I managed to con the Mrs. into helping. We ended up getting a pretty good rhythm with me spraying and her doing the knockdown. It went pretty quick, though still a lot of work. And, many do my shoulders hurt.

 

But its done. I spoke to the painter this afternoon, and he'll be there tomorrow. A day or two for him, then the carpet folks later in the week. Countertops are supposed to be done by Friday. My focus will be to fix up the sink base, which as is often the case, needs a new bottom. Since I had to pull the base cabinets to do the tile, the sink base is going to get new sides and bottom. I need to finish that, and get the other bases back in place before the counter guys show up.

 

If all goes reasonably well, most stuff should get done this week. That will just leave minor items. We'll see.