Well, that's done.

Finished scraping all the stipple off the bedroom ceiling today.

Had to wear nuclear fallout gear due to the dust it created, even with spraying each section with water before scraping it off.

I developed a technique hooking one finger from the scraper hand onto the edge of the plastic container I was holding up to collect as much of the debris as possible.

The floor still got covered with little bits. But much less than if I hadn't done anything. Now I need to give it a wipe down to get rid of the dust, repair the spots that need doing, then hopefully paint on the weekend. Hopefully paint the whole room, or at least get the ceiling done and primer on the walls.

Working 12 hour shifts during the week, and playing in a volleyball tournament (fund raiser for the Christmas Cheer Board) from 3:30 to midnight on Friday, means it will probably be Saturday or Sunday before I get back to it.

Hopefully, things will progress a little faster now that that's done. I'd like to have my free time my own again... or at least until the next project is under way!

Change of plan

I was going to try and very carefully paint the stipple ceiling in the bedroom.

I purchased the appropriate multi-sliced foam roller. I knew that you only roll the paint on once, not back and forth. I know that if that crap gets too wet, it comes off.

Little did I realize that the stipple was so thinly put on that all you had to do was look at it sideways and it would come off with the paint. Very fragile.

So... change of plans. I will be scraping all that stipple off the ceiling, doing the necessary drywall repairs (old minor leak from poorly installed chimney flashing ~ since repaired ~ the flashing, that is) and then painting.

(Eye protection ~ check. Water sprayer ~ check. Scraper ~ check.

Bin to catch all the bits ~ check.

Any which way you like it ladder ~ check.)

I do prefer a smooth ceiling but scraping is a lot of work and hard on the neck for one with a herniated disk awaiting a consult with the neurosurgeon (end of January). So this slows me down as I can only do it for so long on any given day.

But I sure hope there are no more surprises underneath all that flaky shit. I have always hated stipple ceilings. I guess now I have to do something about it.

And this is what will be in store for the rest of the main floor rooms. *sigh*

Oh well. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

AND... I have to admit I will like the look much better when it's all said and done.

Happy Turkey Day!

To all my friends in the US of A,

I wish you all a peaceful, restful and delicious Thanksgiving.

I'll be a while...

Got back from Las Vegas last night and had a great time! Although it did rain continuously the first couple of days... (Vegas is a desert, for crying out loud!) And Monday night, Maart came down with some kind of bug ~ fever, chills, nausea. At least it was our last night there. Would have been even more terrible if he'd picked up this bug when we first go there. The plane flight home on Tuesday was so not fun for him, poor guy! He's feeling much better today, although still weak. Thankfully no upchucking occurred at all (especially thankful for that on the plane) due to regular ingestion of Gravol.

But we saw Michael Bublé (love that man ~ he is very entertaining! plus can he sing), went to a shooting range and shot a few WWII guns (I have targets to prove I would survive the zombie apocalypse as I can definitely hit the head ~ the big head, you two... get your minds out of the gutter!) and took in one of Cirque de Soleil's productions. They have 8 in town ~ we saw Zumanity (here's a brief clip ~ the real show has the girls topless). Spent time walking around, people watching and just enjoying each others company. Neither of us gambled at all (no interest) but we found a bar right in our hotel with bikini-clad cowgirl waitresses and a mechanical bull. Had good laughs at the drunks who got on that thing!

Well... I still have lots to do in the bedroom. I have to finish the smoothing of wall imperfections. I will be taking down the cheap little white ceiling fan light fixture and replacing it with one a bit more stylish, but will repaint the ceiling while it is fixture-less. A pain in the ass to do, what with the stipple texture crap that so many houses have. I hate that stuff but it is too much work to remove. So I will spruce it up instead with a fresh coat of paint. It hasn't had one since the place was built, I'm sure.

Then I'll roll primer over the patches and crap green walls, then paint a lovely pale cream (aptly named 'goat cheese') over it all. All the trim will be nice and white, but first the floor must go in.

I picked up 11 boxes of a nice 12mm thick laminate (Sacramento Pine) today (to do the bedroom and hallway). And I can order more later when I get around to doing the living room and front bedroom. It is a regular item at my local hardware and everything else store. The blades of the new ceiling fan are a very close colour match to the flooring, which was a guess until I opened the box at home... and I am pleased!

I still have to find the closet doors but haven't even asked anywhere about them because I am nowhere close to being ready to install them. I want the floor to ceiling mirrored sliding ones. That means one whole wall will be mirrors.

Run with that one, boys! ;-)

So the final picture will be... pale creamy walls, crisp white trim, cocoa brown cellular window blind, warm rich pine floor, brushed nickel fan with matching wood blades, room expanding mirrored wall and soft amber light from Himalayan rock salt lamps nestled on small white shelves flanking the queen bed, which is cloaked in a rich purple, soft green and warm mushroom watercolour floral duvet.

Slow process

My bedroom is in a state of chaos, having had almost all of the furniture moved out (except the bed and nightstand), the carpet pulled out, and the trim pulled off.

(No, my house isn't tilted... and no, I wasn't drunk!)

It is a very slow process to get things patched up, what with the shifting of the house and the original wooden studs being rather rough cut and uneven (the house is 63 years old, after all).

(The former closet door with two layers of mud and tape ~ more to go.)

Having closed off the original closet and drywalled over the opening, I am now in the process of applying multiple layers of drywall compound (mud) to cover the joints (and all the other cracks and nail holes elsewhere in the room). Because the studs we used to frame in the door opening are nice and straight, and the original ones are rather wonky, the drywall edges dip in and stick out in various places. *sigh*

(This wall will become the new closet ~ looks tiny but is 10' long.)

It's going to take a while to complete this part of things, especially given that Maart and I will be winging our way south to Las Vegas on Thursday for a 5 day stint in Glitz and Glitter Ville. We are going to see Michael Bublé in concert on Saturday, take in one of Cirque de Soleil's performances (we are eyeballing Zumanity ~ they have 8 different shows going around town) and visiting the Gun Shoppe for a little firearms action. Other than that, we'll just wander around and play it by ear as to what we do.

It will be nice to get away for a bit. We now have snow here in the Centre of Canadia and temps of around -8C. The forecast for Vegas is overcast and +16C or so. I think we can handle that!