Popcorn Ceilings Hurt My Feelings

Oh popcorn ceilings. I am not a fan of popcorn ceilings. I have tried to determine why and it probably boils down to that they feel cheap to me. And they are ugly. I also grew up with flat ceilings (or mostly flat ceilings) so that is just what I prefer. However, I'm also smart enough to know they are a pain in the butt to remove. So when we started working on the rooms, our plan was to just re-paint the popcorn ceilings and try to make them look better. I was ok with that for the time being.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the plan changed when the ceilings started literally bubbling up and falling off in the master bedroom. Wendy, Dave and Aaron were painting the ceiling and when they saw what started happening - they stopped. So we talked about it, and decided HEY! if they are coming down that easy it won't be so bad. So began our journey to remove the popcorn ceilings.


I must admit it started off kinda fun. Spraying water all over the ceiling, watching it come down in sheets, laughing at how funny we all looked in our masks. We decided to go ahead with it in the office, too.

Aaron's uncles Brad and Kurt even came down from Liberty and Excelsior Springs to help us mud and sand the ceilings. They got us off to a great start. But then we sanded, and sanded, and sanded some more. My arm has never been so sore. There were four of us up there on ladders, sanding and sanding and sanding. There was dust everywhere. Even my boogers turned white. No joke. Look at poor Brad after sanding. And then me with Wendy. It was pretty miserable to be honest. And in case you are wondering, I have a shirt on my head.

I must admit we did a great job for being amateurs. We worked super hard. Kuddos to Wendy and Dave, they worked hard all day and then had to sleep in the dust storm that resulted from our adventure.

The Master turned out great - it's not perfect but no ceiling is. We had challenges in the office though. Mud started flaking down when we painted it, and there were spots that we could just not get. We ended up bringing in a professional to finish it up and it turned out great. Here is a before and after of the office ceiling (and of course notice the change in paint color!!!!)


Wow - it seems so strange to write about these ceilings in one little post. There were just hours and hours and hours put into them. That's just how these home improvement things go I guess! Thanks to my sister Rachel for the brilliant title for this post - it really summed up our experience with the popcorn ceilings!!!!!