Weekend Project: A Bit of a Scrape

So, as I mentioned in my earlier post the foundation people left several big holes in our floor when they left and now it's up to us to decide what we want to do about covering them up again. We've been told that ceramic tile is not a good idea as this house will most likely need to have the foundation "tweaked" at least every few years or so and tile will crack at the slightest slip past level. If we had decided to stay here I would have opted for hardwood throughout, but cost-wise that just isn't practical in the situation we now find ourselves in. So instead we are going with a top quality (not terribly ugly) linoleum tile (hah! oxymoron) in the kitchen and bathrooms, and we'll most likely do a laminate in the rest of the house.

In the concrete bald spot left by the foundation people in the spot where the fridge once stood, we noticed that this house has had at least 6 (that we can count) layers of new linoleum laid over the years. Now if you consider that the house was built in '85 it means that we're talking a new layer about every 4 years without a single person taking that extra step and removing the old layers before adding the new. Now ordinarily P and I would have done exactly the same thing and slapped our layer on top of the pile... alas the hole being completely stripped bare would have caused a noticeable dip underfoot. (I know this because my lazy nature caused me to check before going ahead with plans to remove old lino) Rats! Foiled again!

Admitting defeat we traipsed off to Home Depot to find the necessary lino removal accoutrements. We were advised by a perky sales clerk that all we needed to do was stab a few holes in the surface with a Stanley knife, spread a bottle of linoleum removal liquid, wait an hour and then commence scraping. P had a better idea. Something he learned while researching the project online (I know...) he wanted to try lots of soapy water... I don't know why I let him talk me into it... I mean, isn't soapy water also what you use to clean this kind of floor? How much soapy water is it going to take to loosen 6 layers of lino from their home of 25 years.

We did decide to get a... well... scraper I guess is what it's called. There were two options... the $8 version or the $30+ version. Here's where being thrifty sometimes bites you in the bum... "Why pay more just for the extended pole?", I asked. "I plan on doing it in small intervals anyway," P agreed. Together we chimed, "We don't need the longer handle!" And with that we walked out of the store with the $8 model complete with spare packet of blades.

Turns out, 6 layers need a heck of a lot more than some soapy water and a tiny scraper. We're definitely going to have to bring in the big guns on this one. We're going to need to get a few bottles of the toxic remover for a start, some spare blades for our Stanley knife, and at least one Big Boy Scraping Implement... Judging from the smell coming from under those layers, it probably isn't a bad idea to look into some Kilz or similar primer too... just in case we have a damp issue as I suspect. But most of all I sense the need to stock up on pain killers and Band Aids for surely we're going to need them before this project is over.

We're Baaaccckkkkkk!

And our house is finally solid and the deck was saved. It only took 5 months, 15 holes in our floor, 3 different plumbers, 1 engineer, 1 soil lab, 3 insurance agents, 1 storage facility, 2 truck rentals, 1 motel room with 3 cats, and a partridge in a pear tree!

We've spent the last two days in the company of the world's chattiest plumber who informs us that not only do we have an 8-foot sag in our pipes under the living room, we also have a break in our 90 coming out of the kitchen... (Apparently 90 refers to the 90 degrees, the name of the separated pipe). What does this all mean? Well... basically we just moved home after spending a week in one of the most depressing motels you've ever clapped eyes on while the foundation was fixed. We packed up almost everything we owned and put it in storage to avoid the dust nightmare we were told would be happening back here at home. All the holes patched and concrete dried at last we moved back in last Friday and it's been non stop cleaning and unpacking since.

Today Jarrod (aforementioned plumber) went into great detail about how he would repair our plumbing issues. Guess what? They need to go through the concrete floor.... in the exact same spots recently vacated by our foundation people... GAH! Will it ever end? Hah...

Anyway... if you take a peek over at the To Do list on the right there you'll see that not only has the list been slimmed down significantly, but we've dropped a few points on the taste spectrum. :) You see, we've decided to get the heck out of this money pit before it sends us to the poor house. You betcha, we're slapping lipstick on this pig and getting outta here. That list over there is no longer a Must Do list, it's more of a general idea list. We're going to do the least amount necessary to get it sold.


So look forward to more frequent updates about our new projects, starting with a mini-kitchen makeover... coming soon!

I'd better get back to sucking up the last of the concrete dust before our lungs give up the ghost.

Seriously... You want to do WHAT to our deck?

These are words I wish I had said to our foundation repair estimator on Friday. Since we moved into this house in March we have noticed a number of hairline cracks grow nasty and more aggressive. Since July they have been absolutely incredible and really had us scared.

The plan was for my mom and step-dad to take a look at them when they were in town to let us know if we would be able to fix all of them while they were here. (These cracks had clearly been here for a while, and looked as though the seller had simply patched them for sale... the Band-Aids have started to lose their stick and now we have gaping wounds on every wall in every room of the house).

After some discussion we decided that the cracks were far too many for us to properly correct while they were in town and it was decided that the best use of their time would be to help us with the deck -- besides, we had the wood standing in our front yard already!

We decided to call in the foundation company who had done the most recent foundation work on the house. We bought the home with a double lifetime warranty as you may remember... the house had had to separate lifts in it's life. Once at the back and once up front... each of these lifts has a lifetime warranty. We finally had our guy come over on Friday.

He was a great guy, and very sensitive to our first-time-home-buyer-low-cash-high-stress-freak-out situation. He explained that after the last lift he had advised the previous owner to have the plumbing pressure tested to make sure that the property shift had not displaced anything under the house. He stated that he had told the previous owner that the warranty would be voided if he did not take care of the pressure test, and repair any plumbing leaks that may have occurred. He told us yesterday that looking at the giant cracks in our walls, it would seem that the previous owner did NOT take care of this... the middle of the house is sinking and the edges are bobbing up....

You can see where we're going with this can't you...

We quickly asked if that would affect our warranty? I mean... the foundation was the biggest question in our minds when we looked at this house. I still have copies of numerous emails back and forth to our agent and the sellers agent discussing our fears, and asking questions. We were finally told that there was a warranty on the foundation, and we were put in touch with this company who assured us that whatever may come down the road, we were covered as far as the foundation was concerned... cosmetic repairs were our own problem. Fair enough right? Well after taking some time to think about it we decided "better the devil we know (and have a warranty for) than the devil we don't know"... this is Central Texas and foundation issues exist everywhere in our area... at least this way we would go in knowing that it would be a problem, but having the warranty to cover the $20-50K foundation repairs that could be incurred. In all we decided it was a safer bet for us.

Fast forward to yesterday. We stood dumbfounded as Isaac explained that the warranty COULD be voided if the previous owner did not make necessary repairs to the plumbing. He suggested that we get a pressure test done to the plumbing before calling him to come back. We turned white as sheets and I swear I thought I was going to have a heart attack.... when finally he said, "Well, I mean I know this is not your fault. I just needed to mention that this is in the contract so that you know... if you were not such a nice customer I wouldn't need to make the repairs if the plumbing hasn't been seen to, but since it's not your fault and had nothing to do with you, I can tell you that I WILL fix it as part of the warranty and if necessary I will just go after him myself." It was at this point that Peter added, "If he didn't make the repairs (repairs never mentioned in the sellers disclosure) WE will go after him too!"

OK. So enough doom and gloom right? Let's say he DID have the plumbing repaired. Let's say this is just a shift in the foundation and they need to repair it. How do we do that? What are our options?

"Well," began Isaac, "we have two options. First, we could go around the edges where everything is raised and remove shims so bring everything down back in alignment... but if there is an issue in the middle it would continue sinking and might not be the best option. Or, we could rip up all of your floors, go through the concrete foundation and reach all the piers under your house and make necessary adjustments to level them. Of course, this would require that you move out of the house for 2 weeks. I would recommend that we just do the edges... but oh... I don't think that deck was there when the warranty was written up... Uh, geez... the deck needs to come off. We need to access the piers down that side of the house, and certainly when we lift the house the deck (which is attached by bolts to the concrete foundation) will lift with it... Yes. The deck will need to go."

!!!!!!!



Isaac leaves... we sit down and begin to panic. Naturally we each call a parent to share the disturbing news. My mom is understandably hysterical about the impending death of the new deck... We beat around some ideas for alternatives and come up with something... Moving out for two weeks is the least of our problems, we would be happy to do that. The deck cost nearly $7,000 plus a week of labor in mid-July Central Texas summer... i.e. H-O-T!! The $6,000 doesn't include the 3 cases of water, hospital bills incurred from my foot accident nor any of the other incidentals we picked up... I think ultimately we were closer to $10k invested in that deck... no WAY were we giving it up.

I left our plans with Isaac on his voicemail and he called us back with another option. He says that since the corner where the deck is is on the high side, we COULD just bring everything else up to match that side of the house. ANd to avoid needing to access that side of the house, we could just pull up the carpet (YAYYYY!!) and go throught he floors. Perfect!

So where are we now? OK. We have to pay for a plumber to come out and do a hydro pressure test on the pipes. (Around $500). Once we have the results of this test we will decide on next steps. If there is a leak under there we will need to have that fixed once the foundation is lined up again... and we will have two VERY mad people trying to find a certain Mr and Mrs G. Martin of Austin for answers... Hopefully it is simply a matter of getting the piers sorted out and we're good to go again... oh... well after we get the drywall patched, taped and painted...

We're learning a LOT about this whole house buying thing. I know for sure that the next time we are trying to buy a house we have many more questions we want to ask... and honestly, I don't think we will buy anywhere near this area again. We asked Isaac if he has much business in the area. He told us that our street is one of the busiest as far as foundation repairs. We asked, "Where do you NEVER have to go?" He said North-West Austin where he lived is pretty solid. SInce AUstin is out of our price range and Peter starts a new job in the town of Leander soon I asked about Leander... Isaac says he rarely if ever has any calls out there... sounds like a solid place to buy! haha We'll see how it goes.

What we have discovered is that the previous owner here just had the foundation repaired, brought some cheap labor in here to slap patches over the cracks, spray in some paint and lay cheap carpet and then get this baby on the market. Peter keeps saying that we should just "put the lipstick back on the pig and get the hell outta here!" I still think we could make it work and really make this a nice place for the next person. Besides... we're not going anywhere until the market starts picking up again.

My Parents House & Ikea

Haven't had time to post a full photo story of our recent changes yet. Promise I will do that this weekend. In the meanwhile, here is a link to my mama's house in Canada. It just went on the market today, so she had some lovely pics to share with me, and I am going to share them with you too!

Photo Listing

Slideshow

P.S. No comments about the fake plants. I've heard (and made) them all before... bottom line is, they're in Calgary, Canada... plants don't like that kind of weather! At least they're good fakes! Love ya mom! hee hee :)

-------------------------------------------------------

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! New Ikea catalog just arrived! Time for me to soak in the tub and peruse the gorgeousness. :)

Holiday Project Sneek Peeks

As promised, here are some sneek peeks of the two bigger projects we tackled (with a LOT of help) over the break.

Gasp! We have a deck!!!


Our oven/office is an oven no more! More detailed pics and "finished product" shots to come as well as a few smaller holiday projects we tackled.

Yellow?

Is it just me, or do y'all think that this area needs yellow accents? I've seen so much yellow around lately, and I love it, but just can't figure out how it will work with my taste AND I am sure that yellow is just a passing fad so I refuse to spend a fortune on anything yellow... but seeing those bananas in the green bowl on the table made me think... wouldn't a great wire, or otherwise sculptural bowl in a bright glossy yellow look sublime on that table? Or maybe a grouping of yellow candlesticks or something...

Gah! Not sure how that will work the the paint color on the opposite wall though...

This is the "color story" I am playing with... (Don't you love that phrase?)
Do you think yellow in place of the River Bank would look totally out of place in a room edged by Spanish Galleon? Any suggestions as to how I can change things out to suit? (Remembering that the dining area and living area are in one big space together, and my couch is a dark chocolate color (that really looks like a chocolate grey if such a color exists...)

Weekend Project Update!

We made some progress on the porch this weekend! One coat of white trim paint down, one more to go... well, we're going to wait until after we put the new decking on the porch before we go with the second coat, in case of nicks and bumps during installation.

The bench looks fabulous out there, don't you think? I am a little nervous because the bicycle chain that we bought won't fit between the slats, nor the tabs I sewed into the cushions. Dumb me forgot to measure properly before buying the chain, but another one is not going to be hard to find I am sure.


For now, I will just hope for the best and pray that no one would think of messing with our cute little porch.


In other news I went ahead and painted the last of the coffee table paint onto the dining room wall and LOVE it! There wasn't enough to do the whole wall, and it still needs a second coat, but this gives me a good idea of how it will look when it's done and I love it! What do you think? I know it's not a great color for resale, but we can neutralize it when it comes time to sell.



So far the progress on the spare room is still limited. I did manage to empty two boxes and get them out of there, but if you could see the state of the room, you would know that this really isn't much progress at all in the grand scheme of things. It is literally wall to wall boxes, bags and stuff in there and we're nowhere near to calling that room "done" just yet. I want to make it my mission to remove at least one bag or box per day this week and see how I do with that. It's probably a good thing that my mom is coming out for my birthday in July as I HAVE to have the room finished by then, so that will light a fire under my butt.

Ohhh what the heck... here's a picture of what is becoming known as the black hole...
... don't judge me....

Weekend Project: Porch & Spare Room

Hallelujah! It's Friday!! And it's time for another weekend project to-do list.

This week, we'll be trying to keep the costs down as we've kind of gone a little hog wild over the last few weeks. We have a big visa application coming up soon, so we need to hold back a little on the cash.

In this light, the plan for the weekend is:

- Organize the spare room.

Yes, I know this has been on the list for a few weeks now. But we have now identified the problem. We need to get rid of a ton of office stuff, papers and things that we don't need to hang on to. I also have a secret plan to share some of my rarely used scrapbooking supplies with a friend who actually scrap books and could use some to add to her stash. I know that I need to go through my fabric stash with a ruthless eye and throw out any, and all fabric I am unlikely to use.... ok, except for those pretty vintage sheets... I may decide to throw a quilt together at some point. LOL

- Front Porch Beautification

During our recent trip to Pier 1, we stumbled upon some cute outdoor throw pillows that I love, love, love. It brought up an idea I've been toying with to add something to our decidedly boring porch. Trouble is, my plan involves moving one of my fave pieces of furniture that really doesn't fit in the house to the porch.

Now, the porch is covered, and rarely even gets wet when it rains (which, let's face it, it never does in Texas). My real issue with bringing it outdoors is that the South African in me won't shut up about the possibility of it being stolen off my porch. I know, I know... Round Rock is number 19 on the list of safest towns in the country so what am I worried about right? The bench I have in mind is gorgeous!! It needs some rehabbing, new poly stain, etc. But lately, everywhere I turn I see this bench on display in some magazine, or brochure, etc. It's a hot item, and I want to keep it in my possession, but I also need to make more room in our house.

Enter the master plan... We're going to Walmart to pick up a bicycle chain.... I have already sewn some loops into the back of the cushions, and we will (subtly) chain both the bench, and cushions to the porch railing. Problem solved! LOL Don't judge me! I am a product of my childhood environment.

And look, it's not just me... Here is a picture of my mom and step father's camp site in Calgary, Canada. See that picnic bench? They brought that with them... See the chain attached to the tree? They brought that too! (What you can't see in the below image, is that there is also a fully built shed and a plastic storage/seating bench too!)

Please note the deck in front of the RV... they built that too. You can't be without a deck for the summer,
even if it's only 3 months long in your town, and you'll only be visiting the RV over weekends!
What can I say, it's in the genes people!

I also have plans to slap some fresh white paint on the railings, and possibly also paint the living/dining room wall... But I make no promises on these two, the porch and spare room are main priorities.

My gorgeous rugs arrived today and I must say I am surprised. The leafy one is actually a totally different color to what I thought, BUT.. it's gorgeous and actually I like it more! I want to hold off on showing you pics until I have painted the wall in the dining area and done something with the table top in the living room. Pics on Sunday.

xoxo

Weekend Project: Furniture Rehabbing

Well, it's Friday again and you know what that means? It's weekend project time!!

So here is our plan of attack for the weekend. Again, I make no promises that everything on this list will be done... this is just the "ideas" list.

- Painting new coffee table
- Paint decor items & possibly lamp
- Finishing garage door insulation
- Start painting wood trim exterior
and the ever present... Organizing spare room

Wish us luck!

Weekend Project Update!

Ok, so I know some of you have been standing by since Sunday waiting for the updated pictures. Unfortunately, there really isn't much to see this week. Not because we didn't DO anything, but rather because what we did appears so incredibly unremarkable that it's almost not worth showing. LOL

So you may remember that our mission was to continue sprucing up the garage/office. (Almost ready to start calling this the office and not the garage.) Here are some pics to remind you of the before:



Then last weekend, we did the floors remember?


This weekend, our plan was to tackle the walls by painting just plain primer for now to brighten things up (we can't Paint Paint because the walls need some serious work). I also wanted to clean up the peg board and put it to use. And lastly, we wanted to insulate the garage doors more.

Here's my gorgeous other half painting on the primer:
Seriously... is there anything cuter than a man with a paintbrush in his hand? I think not!
(please note that that was one sprayed on coat of Krylon Avocado Green. We laid a further 2 coats on later).

Here is the finished product... look ma, things hanging up and not on the floor! (Well, you can't see the floor and you won't until the room is finished.) Yes, I know the pegboard could use another 2 coats or 20... but seriously, the Krylon is more for outdoor use! We were totally paint bombed into quitting... and the room still reeks of spraypaint 3 days later! We may need to revisit the peg board this weekend.


And here are the new almost insulated garage doors. I say almost because we need to go and get more panels to cut and fit into the gaps. Strangely, just these half covered panels are already making a difference in here. I am so excited to get the rest of them on, and have the ceiling sorted out, we won't know ourselves!


Still need for this room:

- Area Rug to break up the grey and add warmth to the space.
- Really fabulous desk lamps
- Cable tidies for all the wires
- Walls repaired
- Ceilings properly finished
- Fabric panels for the garage door
- New, bigger window
- Proper lighting
- Tuck ugly outlet wiring behind drywall
- Art
- Shelves & storage
- A shed... no, not for inside the office, but to place outside the house so that we can get the mower, Christmas decor, camping stuff, etc out of here.
- Peter's new TV console for his Xbox and accoutrements

There... that's not much right? LOL

If all my clients pay this week, I hope to have some much more exciting, BIG impact projects for you this weekend. *fingers crossed!*

Weekend Project: Office Paint & Insulation

Well, it's Friday again and you know what that means... time to get our weekend project on the table. You may remember that last weekend, we tackled the garage and spare room... well more the garage than the spare room truthfully.

This weekend, our plan is to insulate the garage and get some paint on the walls to make them look less... what is the word I am searching for, um... manky? Yes, manky is a good word to describe them. We're not going with our final paint choices mind. The walls in here are still in really bad need of repair, so we will just be slapping up some clean white paint to tide us over for now. To brighten the space and add to the "garage no more" look we are shooting for.

The office walls are in a bad state of repair and could use some patching, we'll be painting around those spots for now until the rescue team in the form of my mom and step dad arrive in July. They're nothing a cleverly placed pot plant can't hide anyway.

Also coming up is the peg board rehab. We have a great peg board in here, but it needs a coat of paint and sadly... no pegs! It's time to remedy that and get some of our garden tools up off the floor and stashed away.

Other plans are to photograph the last of the items going on Craigslist and get them posted this weekend so that we can make more space.

If we're lucky and have some extra time, we are also going to dig through the spare room and try and get that more organized as well. Now that last weekends garage toss pile has kindly been removed by Round Rock Refuse, we're ready to load up our bins again with all the extraneous bunff we've got cluttering up the guest room.

We'll also be measuring for our new fence as we're all set with the plans to rip out the old fence to make room for the beautiful deck this summer.

Wish us luck! Look for your weekend project update on Sunday evening as usual.

Kitchen Inspiration

We've Got It Covered...

Well, I had hoped to wait till both sides were complete before posting this, but I am at a loss for something new to post this week and we have decided to wait on hanging the other blind until we can get our hands on a stud finder (where was this miraculous tool when I was single *da-dun-dump!*)

I think this might be one of my favorite things that we've done and it was probably one of the simplest. Following the idea shared by John and Sherry of ThisYoungHouse.com I got a great deal on these bamboo blinds from BB&B and they were one of the first things we ordered when we moved in.

Peter still thinks this was totally unnecessary as he says you can barely see the cupboards unless you're IN the laundry area... but I know they're there.... Here's that same space sans blinds... You tell ME if the difference is worth it?

Weekend Project Update!

Well it's 6pm on Sunday and while we've done a BUNCH of work, we've not completed everything on our list. (But we did a great job of everything, so I am ok with it).

Saturday went perfectly to plan. We cleared boxes, donated to charity and emptied all but Peter's table out of the garage.


We vacuumed, and swept and vacuumed and swept till we were happy that every last speck of dust had been removed, and then set about painting. The painting part went really quickly, I think it took us just under 2 hours start to finish and we did a great job! There are parts of the floor that had deep set grease stains that just wouldn't lift, so the paint is blotchy in places, but this afternoon it was dry enough for us to replace our furniture and start moving things back into the office, and get set up properly. I must say, the walls now look absolutely awful. With the floor looking so fab it really draws attention to the awful wall situation in here. But we'll get to them soon enough.

For now, we're just happy to have a clean office to work in. We started off throwing down the paint flecks that came with the paint, but after doing the top step decided that the look was more "garage" than office and that the grey floor actually looked perfectly good without them. I had to make a quick decision as the paint was drying fast and decided to scrap them for the rest of the space. Ultimately, I think the specks would have detracted away from the different concrete textures, and the oily patches, but all in all the room looks less like a garage now... moderately...

I have been toying with the idea of giving you a new picture of the garage with the painted floors, etc. But we have more plans for things we want to do in here next weekend, and I think I would rather wait until we have them done before I share the full view, so for now, here is the floor.

'Scuse the foot, but I had to put something in the shot, or it would have been a big grey square.

This foot, I assure you, was unintentional. But here you can see the two different floors. Speckled
floor is on the raised portion of the floor, the plain grey is the rest of the room. You can also see one of the
greasy marks on the top left.

In other news, while we haven't totally conquered the box room, I did manage to set up a little crafty area in the guest room closet. It's small, but adequate and works well for me. I have a little piece that I can do what I like in, and my gaudy collection of crafty bits and pieces now all have a home out of sight. And such a CUTE home too! OK. So guests don't exactly have the roomiest space to hang their clothes when they come and visit us, but it's not like we have a ton of overnight guests, and most of the stuff can be packed away when guests come to stay.

Please pretend not to notice the linens about to topple off the top shelf.
We're still working on a "system" to keep everything in order up there.

So there you have it! Our weekend's work. I did also get one hung blind out of P, but honestly it was such a mission I haven't dared to ask for the second to be hung... I'll hit him up for that this week sometime, and then show you pics when we have less stuff piled up in the garage. My other mission for this week... take pics of and list all the leftover furniture on Craigslist/Freecycle and get RID of them!

Weekend Project: Garage & Spare Room Domination

OK. So we need to admit that our office is still a pig-sty and the spare room is still just a room with a bed and a ton of boxes. We plan to remedy that this weekend.

Here's our plan of attack.

SATURDAY:

First up, we're throwing out all the boxes already unpacked. (I am SO mad that our local recycling service doesn't accept cardboard boxes. REALLY lame in my opinion).

Second, we're making a run to Goodwill to drop off the "Donate" pile that has been growing in our garage for MONTHS. (Yep, we MOVED our donate pile with us.)

Third, we're moving everything else out of the office for the rest of the day/night. And then painting the floor as we planned to do before we moved our stuff in. Kinda wish we were painting the walls at the same time, but I take what I can get.

SUNDAY:

Fourthly, we're moving all the office furniture back into the garage.

Fifthly, we're moving all office related stuff out of the spare room and into the office.

Sixthly, we're finishing off my crafting space and linen cupboard in the spare room.

Seventhly (?!?), we're cleaning, and setting up the spare room.

Then we're done!

Oh wait... if I ask really nicely, I am hoping that P will help me hang the blinds over the shelves in the laundry area as well. Might be pushing my luck with this, but a girl can dream can't she? LOL

Keepin' it Real...

Weekend Project: More Poppin'

On Friday evening we ran over to Home Depot to grab supplies for this weekend.

Today we picked up where we left off and are spending the weekend scraping more of our ceilings. The kitchen is now done, as is the entry way. All we have left are the bedrooms, one bathroom and the great room, but due to the steep ceilings, 15 feet at their highest point, there is no way for us to reach, even with our new ladder. We're going to have to come up with an alternative for this room... Typically, it's the popcorn-ed room that bugs me the most and it's the one room I cannot fix.


Now we have a decision to make... do we sand and paint them now, or do we smooth the walls and THEN paint? What do you think? Ultimately, you should paint ceilings before you paint walls, right? But what if you need to re-texture those walls before you can paint?



Honestly, while I don't like textured walls, they wouldn't bother me so much if they were uniformly textured throughout, but alas they are not. The previous owners did some AWFUL patch jobs on the drywall. The corners are just terrible, as is the peak of the arch in the kitchen. In fact... while removing popcorn, we also discovered that some walls had been "patched" using regular silicone caulk, meant for bathrooms!


I have a strong feeling that we need to leave the ceilings until we smooth the walls out.... trouble is, it's going to take us AGES to get them smooth. And it's going to involve a lot of sanding! Ugh... Part of me just wants to re-drywall the whole thing. LOL. Wishful thinking right!

Well I mean... how expensive is white ceiling paint going to be? I suppose we could just go ahead and paint them and if they get "dinged" during the wall smoothing process, we can just patch paint. Yeah... I think that's the best idea!