Sunday, March 30, 2008

This Olde House - Kitchen Ceiling

First time in a week that I've been able to lift my left arm above shoulder-left. So I put my newfound mobility to good use.

My father came over to help. I needed it. We planned on scraping the popcorn ceiling in the kitchen.

It really isn't difficult. Just time consuming. It takes longer to prep the room andclean up the mess than it takes to actually remove the popcorn.

So Cindy and Liam put paper down on the floor. Taped it in place. And Cindy hung plastic over the kitchen appliances and cupboards. Fortunately, she listened to my promises about the lack of dust, and we didn't have to put plastic over the vents or the doorways.

Once the affected areas were prepped, I used a handsprayer to soak the ceiling. About four feet at a time, I'd get the popcorn wet and then Dad would use a long handled scraper to bring it down in long strips. We eventually took turns scraping. But once the open areas were bare, we both worked on the corners by the cabinets and by the light box. It took maybe an hour of work.

When we were done, we were an inch taller. The popcorn had collected on the bottoms of our shoes, like thick white pancakes. We had to cut it with the scrapers. It came off in one giant piece, a perfect mold of our shoes.

Afterwards, we rolled up the paper, rolled up the plastic, and Cindy swept. Two hours to prep and clean, half that to get the tough part done.

Not bad for an early morning project.

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