Renovations - Day One

This weekend has been Renovation Central.

So while our house was built in 1983, it doesn't really seem as if it is.  There are so many design elements and layout specs that feel like they are mid-90s.  However, there are a few things that really do date it: old lighting fixtures and fans, old stairway rails, terrible kitchen countertops.  But more than anything else, it's the stomped-ceilings.

What are stomped-ceilings, you ask?  They are popcorn-ceilings on crack.  Witness:

You may be asking yourself, "What's the deal, missy?  It's just some texture on the ceilings, right?"  Wrong.  The picture can in no way even remotely describe what it looks like in person.  When you look up at one of these ceilings, it resembles stalactites.  

Only a slight exaggeration.

So I spent most of Saturday sanding the ceiling.  Or I use the word "sanding", but it was really "attacking with a force typically reserved for mothers protecting their children from bears".

Thankfully, Lowe's saved me.  Some brilliant person created a ceiling texture remover.  You attach a small plastic bag to it, then attach it to an extension arm, and voila:

It took about three hours, but I was able to knock all the crap off.  (It's a big room.)  Here's a midway shot, with the left being the "before" and the right being the "after":

It's significantly better now.  I still can't get to the top of the ceiling, but I'll live.

Witness the new hotness.

I spent the rest of my time sanding the walls.  This time, it really was sanding!

Brilliant invention.  It took the walls from the "I WILL CUT YOUR HAND IF YOU TOUCH ME!!!" scratchy, to mostly smooth.

Before

After

Again, the improvements are far outside of what you can see in the pics.  But suffice to say, it's a significantly smoother surface now.  And with the wall-sander adapter, it's teh awesomez.

More in separate post!  Prepare thyself.