The Money Pit

We have lived in our house for 17 almost 18 years.  Now you would think that after that many years all of our projects would be finished, but I am of the opinion you are NEVER finished.  I am not complaining or anything like that because I do like for my house to look updated and my bonus, hubby likes projects.

The most recent project was the ceiling in the stairwell.  It has look pretty bad for awhile.  Like, ever since we moved in.  It was just not done well.  Back in the day codes were different and people felt differently about stairwells or landings. This is the entrance to my sewing room as well.  I am taking suggestions on how to improve it also.

I wish I had taken a picture of the ceiling before but I did not.  So I will describe it to you.  It was popcorn and peeling.  How is that?  It really was an awful mess. The first thing we did was remove the popcorn. This is not a difficult task unless you are 5’2′ like me.  It is a time consuming task. You literally have to spray it with water and scrape it off.  That is it and you have to be able to reach it.  This is the picture of the scaffolding that my hubby set up for himself.  Pretty crazy looking isn’t it?  I told him I should post it on those sites that have crazy things men do.  Anyway it worked the entire time he was taking the popcorn ceiling down and painting without injury.

After we took the popcorn ceiling we talked about different ways to finish it off.  Just painting it, or adding something interesting.  We tried bead board but that did not work.  There was not a good way to attach it to a ceiling surface area.  So we ended up using something that people call “shiplap.”

We actually bought a pine board from a local store that is called a shiplap.  It is not cheap though.  It comes in 8ft’ boards at almost 12.00$ a board. We only needed four foot sections so it made it a little less expensive.  So after taking the popcorn ceiling down and repairing the walls we started putting up the boards.  Hubby just used his trusty nail gun and started putting them up there one at a time.  The boards actually have a lip where one board lays on the top of the other. Once you start it actually goes rather quickly. 

He also put trim along the edge so that his nails did not show.  I said it went fairly quickly but I wasn’t doing the work either.

After putting all the boards up we had to prime them.  We generally use KILZ PRIMER  and we did here as well. After the primer we painted the ceiling with White Valpar Ceiling Paint.  It changes color as it dries.  So it makes it very easy to see where you have or have not painted.

Next we painted the walls and voila we had a new landing at the top of the stairs.  Now I will warn you I am not a great photographer and I was really at a loss as how to take these pictures so I will graciously accept and all criticisms for my pictures.  I just hope it inspires you to take on a project similar to this one.  I felt like it was a fairly simple fix for an area that just did not look that good.

I love how clean it looks now.  Of course paint on anything makes it look clean, doesn’t it?  The project took more time than anything.  Maybe it will inspire you to do your ceiling somewhere.  It can take care of a spot that is difficult to deal with in a classy and easy way.  Honestly, Janet