Goodbye Popcorn Ceiling!

Maybe it seems like a minor, cosmetic issue, but popcorn ceilings do not appeal to me.  Ew!  

They were one of the first things I noticed when we looked at the house. 

Thankfully, popcorn ceilings are not incredibly difficult to get rid of.  

Simon's cousin Jessica, over Thanksgiving, mentioned that sometimes popcorn ceiling can contain asbestos.  Since that is certainly nothing to take lightly, we did some research and found that it isn't just a possibility, but it is extremely common.  So, we found a lab to send some samples to that would return really quick results.    

Thankfully the results were negative and allow us to remove it ourselves.  

So, Friday and Saturday were popcorn days.  Messy popcorn days.  

We donned our respirators and safety goggles and got to work. 

Step one: Laying plastic film down to minimize the spread of the popcorn and hopefully quicken the cleanup.   My friend Diana came by the house on Thursday and helped with that. It definitely made it quicker and I am thankful for that! 

Step 2:  Using a chemical sprayer to water on the ceiling.  Spraying water makes the popcorn  

Step 3: Run a drywall knife across the soggy ceiling and the popcorn just scrapes off easily.  Sometimes it comes off in big sheets and others in crumbles.  Either way it makes a big mess.  

It's a messy messy process!  

But so worth it!   Look at those smooth ceilings! 

After the den, it was on to the dinning room.  

Here is Simon working the sprayer.  

And another smooth ceiling!!

We repeated this process in all of the rooms and hallways until we had a popcorn-free home.  WooHoo!
It is definitely a little more time consuming than we had originally expected, but it is still not difficult.  Definitely worth the time!

Next we will paint all of the ceilings and the moulding the same color.
Movin' right along!