Tuesday, January 12, 2016

It's Official! All the Pop Corn Ceilings Are Gone!

Looking back over the last couple of weeks it's hard to believe this is the way things looked around here. I know it looks pretty sad, and believe me when I tell you it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. You know the old saying it gets worse before it gets better. All 10 rooms of popcorn ceilings are officially gone! Yippee Skippy!!!!
My oh my
my heart does little flutters looking back. If you look at the arrows you'll see where some of the changes will occur. The arrow at the top shows where the shelf sat, all the way across the room, talk about cutting a room up. The second arrow shows where the wall was closed up between the hall and kitchen.
I'm sure you're saying what's up with all the wires. The pig-tail type wire hanging to the left of the picture is the transformer to the doorbell I fondly called my Octopus, it's been hanging for over 13 years. There isn't one person around who can say I am not a patient person. I'm so glad to see it gone, hanging in the attic properly installed like it should have been all of these years. The second set of wires is to the stove, wiring against the outside wall and into the breakfast area. I'm happy to report those are all gone as well, properly installed to code as they should have been oh so many years ago.
Notice the piece of cardboard on the ceiling hidden by the fan blades? That was my attempt for the last 2 years to cover up the sky lights. I was loosing so much heat in the winter time and cooling in the summer time, to say nothing of the fact one of them started leaking onto the ceiling. It is time they were closed up and taken out. I had to close them off temporally to save on heating and cooling. It worked folks I lowered my energy bills by quite a lot. Wait till you see the upcoming pictures!!
I finally located a picture that depicts the shelf going all the way across the room and the small post at the end of the bar that truly cuts the room in half. Looking back through the archive of pictures I did an amazing job of disguising this for years. I loved it for a long time and in the last little while knew it was time for it to go when the popcorn came down. I must say through out the process there is not one thing I would change so far. There is still a long way to go with many changes coming in the next little bit, slow and easy they say. I've got this. I've waited a long time for changes and I'm enjoying each and every step I take.
This is my design style shortly after Christmas. Everything shoved into the dining room draped and ready to begin some demo. Everything was shifted into another room shortly after these pictures were taken. Demo is not for the light of heart. No matter how well you cover things up there is an incredible amount of dust. The furnace filter is changed quite often to help, the dust is going to be here for a while. There's still a long way to go.
Again the arrows tell the story. The one at the top shows where the wall ended and then angled up. The arrow on the bottom shows the wall we took out. The opening is now larger by almost 3 feet wider leaning towards a more open concept.
The wall on the left side shows how seemly narrow the opening was compared to the height. I lived with it for about a week. I asked my contractor if we could take out more of the wall. Up to the attic we went, I've been there a lot lately folks, you can say I am one determined woman with a mission in mind. After doing a lot of measuring on both sides it was determined we could take out another 21" on the left side of the opening. I had measured 24" on the wall, I wasn't far off. Due to the main barring supports it wasn't wise to open the right side any further. Oh I could have if I'd wanted to go to more expense to add another header. That was definitely not in the budget.
You can see on the floor how much more I gained in the opening from the dining room into the living room.
So much has happened since I took these pictures, I cannot wait to show you some up to date pictures, as the saying goes
"we've come a long way baby".

Lynne

7 comments:

Pat said...

Lynne,
You're one brave woman, dear friend!!!
I don't think I could stay in the renovation process!!!
I am extremely proud of your decision to move forward with the remodel!!!
Keep the progress photos comin'!!!
fondly,
Pat

Amy at love made my home said...

You have come a long way! Looking great! xx

Lynne (lynnesgiftsfromtheheart) said...

Thanks so much Pat, it's moving along a lot quicker than I even thought possible. I sure appreciate your continued support. fondly ~ lynne ~

Lynne (lynnesgiftsfromtheheart) said...

Thanks so much darling. It has sure changed in the last couple of weeks or so. Thanks for following along.
fondly ~ Lynne ~

Liz@ HomeandGardeningWithLiz said...

Wow Lynne you've taken on quite a project! I lived through a renovation in 1996 when we did our home so I know what it's like having drywall, wood and plastic all around. We removed most of the popcorn ceilings but still have three bedrooms that were never done. It's exciting to realize the changes isn't it! Looking forward to seeing the next pictures!

Lynne (lynnesgiftsfromtheheart) said...

Liz it's so nice to have you stop by. Thanks so much for your sweet comments on the reno. Things are progressing right along, still having a ball, stay tuned more updates to come soon. fondly ~ lynne ~

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Hi Lynne. Are the ceilings going to be painted a color or left white. I want the popcorn removed from our famly room badly but not tneou to go through the mess. Not just now. Can you tell us a bit about how they did it? I can't wait to see the end result. Your home was always so beautiful..but I know how you feel about fixing things that you wait and wait to get done.