The Last Popcorn Ceiling

 Popcorn is meant to be warm and buttery or salty and a little sweet.
Popcorn is best when it is warm, gooey and has been slathered in caramel.

 Popcorn does not belong on a ceiling.
Aside from the cost savings to builders, I fail to understand why anyone sprayed "popcorn" onto ceilings.

Imagine for a minute that it is 1972 and you are looking groovy in your bell bottoms. 

Tom: "Joe, look, a bean bag chair just exploded in our build out."
Joe: "I have an idea. Let's put all those little static cling pieces in with some paint and blow it all over the ceiling."
Tom: "I really don't think that is a good idea."
Joe: "It will be fun and it might look good, like that time that Hildi from Trading Spaces put hay all over the wall."
Sometime later after popcorn shenanigans...
Tom: "That really doesn't look good. Look at how it makes the ceiling look gray and have shadows everywhere.
What about in a kitchen when grease and dust can cling to it and leave weird dingle hoppers hanging down in front of where people want to cook?"
Joe: "Listen, Tom. This is brilliant. It is a terrible look but it is costing us less money. 
We will just convince the homeowners that this is the "in thing.""

There you have it. 
The gross dingle hopper was an actual reality in my kitchen and I swept at the ceiling with a broom to get all the gross dingle hoppers off. 
Disgusting.

 We had one ceiling left...
We had one ceiling with dusty and gross popcorn.

A few weeks ago, I was enjoying my morning coffee on a warm Saturday morning.

Bill got up at the crack of dawn, so he'd already been up for 5 or 6 hours.
Kidding-not kidding. 

He finally had the energy to tackle the last of our popcorn ceilings. 

Oh, there a few closets that could be done but that is not going to happen. 
This had literally been hanging over our heads for a year. 
No amount of hinting was going to get the painter out here to have it professionally done.  

 

This room is really three spaces. 

There is the main game room. 

There is the entryway ceiling and then there is the ceiling over the stairwell. 
I needed Bill's help with the plastic drop cloths because there was so much draping to do.

 I could not figure out how to reach the stairwell and the entry way to remove the popcorn over these spaces.  

I finally figured it out one night as I was trying to fall asleep. 

If I can't sleep I will mull over projects that need to be done. 

I finally figured out that I could tape the scraper to our telescoping paint pole. 
It worked like a charm. 
It is so wonderful to have this ceiling done. 

I touched up the paint instead of repainting for the time being. 

I hate painting ceilings. 

It looks so much better. 

It's amazing how dirty popcorn looks. 

We got a new ceiling fan from Lamps Plus. We had them figure out the power and speed for this space. 
It is not only cute but it is amazing. 

I took a quick spin of the paint roller and coated the walls with Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore. 
It's a perfect gray. 
The only job left to do is hang the t.v.  
That is it for now, friends. 
I'm thrilled the popcorn is gone.  
Happy day! 

Katie 

Bye Bye Popcorn - Hello Warm White

It's crazy to me that a ceiling full of popcorn can be reduced to a small garbage sack. 

 "Bye bye popcorn. Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

This one was a doozy! 
I got a wild hair the first day of Christmas break.
I wanted to take a nap in my room over the break and not have to see our horrible ceiling.
I didn't want to have to imagine what pictures could be made out of the random popcorn shapes. 

Yes. I used to do that. It was like looking at clouds or something. 
I'm pretty sure I saw a lamb up there. Oh and an angel.

I asked Bill to get the ginormous ladder out for me and told him what I was going to do. 
He said, "What? Because we need that added stress right now?"
I said, "Oh, because you could feel the added stress last Monday when I painted the garden room?"
Bill said, "You painted the garden room?"
Me, "Yes. Could you feel the stress all the way over in Dallas?"
No - he could not and he won't for the popcorn either.
:)
All this while we were sitting in the newly painted garden room. 

There was a day - bless his heart - that my projects did add stress to his life. 
But that isn't the case anymore thanks to this blog.

Change is a weekly thing and he doesn't even really notice it anymore. 

I have been rejuvenated in my popcorn removal because I'm not painting the ceiling at the same time.

This saves time and stress. 
You know what?
The ceiling looks fine after a few touch ups.

It turns out that the original ceiling color is the same color as the outside trim paint. 
There were a few places where the mud fell off with the popcorn and nail heads were exposed. 
I had to putz a little paint on those but it looks fantastic.

I couldn't wait to see my free chandelier without the popcorn ceiling. It will be wonderful being able to get photos of the room and not have to avoid the popcorn.

The laundry room is done too since there was no school for two weeks.

 I'm glad I put off the master until I had more practice.  

It wasn't nearly as hard to do as I thought it would be.

Look one more time at the difference between what it looks like with popcorn and with it removed. It looks so dirty.

Thanks for stopping by. You know how much I appreciate your visits.

Katie

Linking with,

Between Naps on the Porch  

A Stroll Thru Life 

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia  

The Scoop # 154 

Savvy Southern Style   

Share Your Cup   

French Country Cottage

The Great De-Popcorning

I have to look at this project through the lens of "what I have finished" instead of "what I still have to do". 

In spite of my threats to Bill that his "get out of popcorn jail free card" had expired, it looks like the irradiation of popcorn ceilings is all on me. 
I was hoping my daughter would be so strapped for cash that she would help, but no such luck. 
;)
I wasn't about to let this summer pass without getting some more rooms done. 
So in spite of a feeling of dread worse than one preceding going to the dentist or the gyno, I pulled out the ladder, massive amounts of plastic and the 6inch scrapper.
*I made sure we had paid the water bill because I knew it was going to be a least a four shower day.* 
I got up, made some coffee and started removing stuff from the living room. 
I was finished clearing out the room and had hung the plastic by 8:30. 

Did you know that you can still watch T.V. through plastic?
True crime shows help the time go faster. 

I left the big stuff. 
Note to self at this point. 
Scrape the popcorn before getting a new rug, couch, media center and T.V. 
#backwards
#storyofmylife
*Shower number one.

I started scrapping and only took two breaks. 
The popcorn was all completely off by 11:30.
To read about my dry method click here.
*Shower number two.

I cut out the edge of the ceiling first before I was too tired to climb up and down the ladder. This is a new, good tip from our painter friend.

I picked up a new paint stick by Wagner. It was going to change my life. 
I could paint without having to bend over a million times. 
No!
It was heavy and I really couldn't get that much more coverage. The paint would not go into the handle. It could have been user error but I was too frustrated to take it apart and start again. 
So I ended up rolling the ceiling with a regular roller on an extended stick. 

I finished painted by 3:30.
*Shower number three.

It was time to clean up all the little styrofoam dinglehoppers and dust and put the room back together. 
I finished doing that at 7:30.
I didn't need to cook because Bill had lasagna leftovers.
*Shower number four.

I freshened up and met Bill at the door.

Popcorn is one of those DIYs that requires a pre-game pep talk. 
It is just plain unpleasant to do. 
I have to ask myself, "How much do I hate the popcorn?" This ceiling was dusty after 24 years. There is no way to dust a popcorn ceiling. I have tried. 
I didn't want to paint over it because I don't care to have whiter, freshened up popcorn and I've heard it's harder to remove once it has been painted. I want it all gone, even in the closets but that probably won't happen because those do look like they were painted before we bought the house. 
Rather than look at what I still need to do, I'd rather look at what doesn't need to be done.
Kitchen
Dining
Living
Hall
Powder Bath
Master Bath
Garden Room

I hope to get to one or two of the smaller bedrooms next week but unfortunately I have Popcorn Thumb.

It isn't blistered but it hurts like crazy!

I did use a respirator for this project. It's rated and approved for asbestos and mold. I don't have those but I didn't want to breathe in any dust. 
If you live in an older home, check for asbestos before removing popcorn. 

That's all for now, sweeties. 
See you next time.
Katie

On The Eighth Day Satan Created Popcorn Ceilings

It all started with a water stain. 

Fixing it was horrible.

I searched on You Tube for how to take off popcorn.

They make it look so easy. 

Please insert bitter voice.

A few years ago, I used the preferred You Tube method for two small windows.

I quickly realized that the recently de-popcorned alcoves required joint compound. 

 I didn't have joint compound. 

My husband accidentally gave me tile adhesive instead. I didn't realize it until I was finished touching up every ding on every wall in the house. 

Insert another bitter voice.

Unbelievably I got it to stick to the wall board but it was a mess. 

It did a bizarre crackling type of thing but it looked passable.

Oh. All the areas I patched did the same crackling effect too. 

Cleansing breaths.

When I did the bizarre under the stair's ceiling, 

I did it completely dry. 
Yes, the sloped part was popcorn. 
Why? Why? 

It was a dusty, popcorn miasma but I didn't have nearly the repairs to do and the paint went on beautifully. 

When I did the master bathroom I used a dry method combined with an occasional wet section for stubborn areas.

It was h#llish!

In hindsight it was horrible in part because we were under such a time crunch.

I had only a few hours to get the popcorn off and paint the ceilings so Bill could begin carpentry in the bathroom.

This time I was prepared.

I was going to try my dry method again. My friend, Michelle, did her whole house with the dry method.

We found that just knocking it off with a 6 inch scraper caused the least amount of repair to the drywall. 

There was a miasma again but...
I got tempted by the You Tube videos and squirted it with the water. Big mistake.

When I got to the powder room, 

it was like the guy emptied out all the remaining popcorn in his shooter on this room. (I don't really know what the tool is called but I like shooter.) 
It had three times the amount of popcorn needed for a tiny little bathroom.
(Buried memory alert. The same thing happened in the potty area upstairs.)

I tried spraying it a little with the squirt bottle of water but this only caused me greater problems. I'll tell you about those in a minute. 

That concluded the first exciting Friday night of Spring Break.

On Saturday I used joint compound and primer to fix the water stain. 

I let it dry overnight. 

Sunday afternoon I started painting.

Last time I used Valspar ceiling paint. It was cheap paint and it didn't cover well at all!
(Goes on pink and turns white-my foot.)
((Wow, I am all about the parentheses today.)) 

I hated it. 

This time I got Glidden. 

I used a very narrow roller.

I had more strokes but it was easier to wield in the tiny hallway. 

It was going pretty well until I reached dry wall that had previously been wet. The thin layer of texture remaining started plopping off onto the ground once I rolled paint over it. 

You see, with the dry method, a small amount of texture remains, resembling the orange peel treatment that cost a fortune in the kitchen.

The wet method takes off everything. 

Which requires a sprayed in orange peel texture or mudding. 

What?

I've just scraped texture off and now I have to re-texture?

(Who is the designer that decided popcorn was out?)
You Tube lures you in with how easy it is, but they don't say anything about fixing the now naked dry wall. 

 I think that a water damaged ceiling will lose more texture which causes completely smooth spots with the predominately orange peel sections.

Ei, Yi, Yi!

Still better than re-texturing the whole bathroom and better than the dingle balls of dust that cling to popcorn. 
(Keep breathing and remembering the little dangly dust bunnies.)

To fix the smooth/texture in the powder room, I ran out to the garage and got some sanded grout and some texture additive and poured both into the ceiling paint.
(Sorry didn't get a picture I was running against time.) 

It brought a little texture back to the smooth spots. 

I made the mistake of not waiting long enough for it to dry before I did another coat of paint so big glops fell off - again. 

I'll try one more coat tomorrow and see how it goes.

Here is what I have learned. 

Don't try this if you are tired. 

It requires patience - massive amounts of patience.
Make your favorite dessert and bribe yourself to keep going.
(Thank you, cheese cake) 

Do not try the dry method on a room in which a teenager has showered. 

Do Not! 
Scary stuff plops from the ceiling as if you are in a horror film. 
Decide if you are all dry or all wet. Don't try to combine methods.
(even if you are very, very tempted.)

Do not do this to an old house. 
Houses that were built before the ban of Asbestos in 1978 could have Asbestos ceilings. I was stunned to learn that even though it was banned, builders were allowed to use up their inventory. 
??
It could have been used well into the 80s.
Yikes.
Please wear a mask to cover your nose and mouth.
Wear safety glasses or goggles.  
I covered my hair with a bandanna.

Do practice doing things upside down. 

Clearly, I should have frosted more cakes upside down.

Spend time looking at the underside of things because that is how you will fix the now de-popcorned ceiling.

But I guess like anything else, practice brings mastery.

This job wasn't as bad as the first three.

I tried comparing it to removing wallpaper. 

It is about the same. 

Messy and annoying. 

I've tackled the dining room. I will show it all fixed up with a new rug in another post. 

I'm so sore! 
Now time for more cheesecake!

Katie
P.S. I turned off the HVAC so that dust doesn't circulate through the house. 
This is not a summer job in Texas.

Linking with,
A Stroll Thru Life  
Cedar Hill Farmhouse
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia