De Ceiling

Wow, I didn’t realize how long I’d been procrastinating on this until I started looking back at old posts. For the record, I cleared the room before Feb 23 and finally got the ceiling painted on July 8th. Yikes.

I describe the process in this post, but what I failed to emphasize is just how much I hate the scaffold. It makes me nervous. Especially middle of the room set up when there is no wall to hold on to and a fan at the level of my skull.

However, looking back I have amazing amounts of self delusion when I think to myself “it wasn’t THAT bad.” Yes, yes it was.

Once I got the ceiling scraped I had to sand it. Ick. Sanding got dust in everything, through the closet curtain and over all my clothes, in the bathroom, up my nose, in the tracks of the sliding glass door. Everywhere.

Once the scraping and sanding was done it was back up on the scaffold with some mud to fill in the gouges I’d made and smooth over any places where the drywall screws caused problems. THEN once that dried a little more sanding and dusting the whole ceiling.

Only then could I paint:

I picked up this 2 gallon mix of primer + paint at Home Depot on sale and carefully rolled it on. By using a small brush I got the corners and then rolled it on in thick, wet patches. Luckily the paint dried super quick and covered well so with the exception of a few patches it’s just about done!

Here it is on half of the ceiling and only one coat!

And here’s the finished shot:

and one more:

Now it’s time to continue with the primer, first using the TSP solution to clean off the walls covered in dirt and dust, then roll on the gray/blue primer coat.

Of course the dogs were in the room and completely useless, if covered in dust:

But I’m mostly glad that is done, one month left to get this room back in order! That’s right, I have an official “due date” of August 1st. Which means I have less than a month. Drats.

Here’s the list from this post:

1. scrape off popcorn texture across 12′ vaulted ceiling while attempting not to fall from the scaffold – done
2. Sand, patch and somehow prep the ceiling – done
3. Paint the ceiling – done
4. Wash the walls and remove outlet and switch plate covers
5. Remove the baseboards, take down lights and remove shelf – done
6. Prime the walls for painting
7. Paint the walls final color (it’s a surprise)
8. Paint the primed baseboards white, cut and install
9. Frame out the sliding glass door so it looks pretty
10. Rehang shelf, install lights and outlet/switch plate covers
11. Deep clean the carpet
12. Move the furniture back in
13. Rehang pictures and curtains
14. Drink large margarita

Oh, and that red chair at the top of the post? I dusted and moved it outside during the ceiling paint process to keep it from getting splattered. Guess who found it a useful perch?

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