Thursday, July 14, 2011

Work on Kitchen Begins


Yesterday I stopped procrastinating and started sanding the kitchen ceiling.

It's not a job I was looking forward to: 10 years ago when we scraped off the old popcorn texture from the kitchen, we had no idea what we were doing. We naively left some of the underlying bumpiness, not realizing that any ragged areas would show through the final paint. Since then, we have learned how to scrape correctly, and how to sand and patch to achieve that final smoothness we want.

So my procrastination. I dreaded having to go back and sand through the paint in some areas to get to the old bumpiness. Areas that need to be filled weren't an issue since spackle is easy to apply and sand for a smooth finish. But I had no idea how easy or how difficult the rough places might be.

I used our new palm sander and discovered how easy the job becomes with it. But it took a lot of overhead work and lots of inspecting to get it all smooth. I still have a bit more to work on today. My arms and shoulders sure ache!

Last night we discovered another problem. The Professor took down the old light fixtures in this area: one is an old box fluorescent fixture and the other is just a ceiling fixture. Underneath the fluorescent fixture we discovered that the ceiling had three cracks. One is quite large (see photo). We're not sure if this is a structural problem or simply cosmetic; we'll have to have someone look at it.

So my progress has come to a halt once again.

1 comment:

Susan (Between Naps On The Porch.net) said...

Hope it isn't structural and just an easy fix! I really admire you for sanding down those ceilings. You'll only have to do it one time...then never again! Maybe you can help me get brave enough to do the same in my house....when and if I ever get around to painting the trim in my office. :)