Monday, January 31, 2011

Manual labor is hard on an old lady!

About 11:00 this morning I started getting ready for our remodel that's supposed to start Wednesday.  I stripped the wallpaper off the bathroom walls and then scraped the popcorn ceiling.

It made such a mess, even though I had sprayed the ceiling with water, that I decided to go ahead and scrape the hallway too.  I figured that way I'd have that much done and could save a little money.

There was no good place to quit!  I wound up scraping the living room ceiling too.

Fred had gone into town to run some errands and by the time he got home I was already in the living room.  He thought I was only going to do the bathroom.  But with the winter storm coming in I thought I might ought to do as much as I could.

His job was to take his shop vac and suck up the ceiling material that had fallen outside the area covered by my drop cloths.

If you ever have to scrap a popcorn ceiling, use a pump-up yard sprayer full of water to wet it first.  Keeps the dust down and makes it super simple to scrape.

It was after 5 p.m. when I finished and got into the shower.  My hair and even my clothes were full of dust and I felt like I'd been in a sandstorm.

Duane, our remodeler, is still planning on starting on Wednesday.  I'm sitting here listening to sleet hammering my window.  A major winter storm is moving into Oklahoma overnight with temps below 10°.  lots of snow and ice in our forecast.  Combine that with our winds that may reach 45 mph tomorrow and we'll lose power, for sure!

My biceps are getting sore from being used for the first time in forever.  My neck is stiff from looking up and reaching overhead to scrape the ceilings.  Manual labor is hard on an old lady! LOL!

I'm going to take a couple of aspirin, put on my snuggy jammies and go to bed.  I've done everything I can do to prepare for Wednesday and if the weather is as bad as they say it will be, I may just lay up in bed all day tomorrow! LOL!

3 comments:

Vanessa said...

Wow, you've been busy! I've scraped the popcorn ceilings, too, so I understand your pain. Good luck with the remodel. Can't wait to see pics!

Carrie K said...

What a job!! I have that nasty popcorn ceiling in my living room that want gone. Wanna come over and help? LOL. I think I know the answer to that one!!
Carrie

Linda said...

Carrie: If you mist it with water it scrapes off in long strips.

I used sheets for dropcloths and just dumped the pieces off into a trash can.

The water helps with the dust, for sure!

The carpenter will just blow what he calls orange peel texture back on the ceilings and paint them.