Now You See it, Now You Don't!! (or .... how we totally changed out the old popcorn ceiling-and more!)

It started out oh-so-simply.  (cough, cough!)

We were sitting around the dining room table, discussing our upcoming Spring Break week. Ahh, Spring Break!! No school. No preschool. No Seminary. Sleeping in. Vacation! Well, sort of.

Todd suggested that we plan a home improvement project to complete during that week. Something like choosing one of the popcorn ceilings to remove. It would take a few days, and could be completed during the Spring Break week. The Haven is still sporting several ceilings with acoustical "popcorn", including the living room, dining room, master bedroom, and family room.

Long story short -- or, well, just not quite as long -- we decided to do the dining room. And that's when the gears in my head kicked in.

"Well, you KNOW....."  And yes, that's how this project started. "As long as we're doing _______, we might as well do __________________......."


So, here's a look at our not-so-simple Spring Break Project:

That's our dining room, with the popcorn ceiling and the kitchen peninsula on the right. The living room chair isn't usually there -- CLICK HERE to see where I talked about the furniture changeout.

And here is a blinding shot from the other direction:

And a rare photo of the north wall (it's often the "messy wall", so I don't usually include it in photos!!)

Did you catch THIS glorious gem:

Oh, yeah.

The infamous wagon-wheel chandelier. It is original to the house. It actually has glass globe covers for the lights, but in an effort to update it a little, I changed those out to the tan mini shades. And added the red berry garland. There's only so much you can do here, people!

It is not centered in the room, and not centered over the table -- which we have kept at a diagonal in the room. If we were to center the table under the light, it would be way too close to the fireplace. I'm pretty sure that each and every one of us (with the exception of Emma) have hit our heads on this low-hanging light fixture. Some of us, more than once.

It NEEDED TO GO. And it was one of the first things we took out:

But the real "meat" of this project??

We (ok, well -- *I*) have talked for years about how nice it would be if we removed the bank of cupboards that is above the peninsula counter, and opened up the kitchen to the dining room. It had a lot of storage in it, which is one thing that this kitchen does have plenty of: storage. The cupboards were 2-sided, so you could open doors from either side -- very handy.

But if you were standing in the kitchen and you wanted to talk to someone in the dining room, you seriously had to duck your head to peek at them under the cupboards. (Or be like Emma, and open the doors and chat through the cupboard.) And the counter workspace was always dark, because the cupboards blocked light from either room to get to it.

So. As long as we were scraping and having to repair the ceiling, it was also the PERFECT time to remove the cupboards. Right??

(Ummm, ..... This made it a substantially larger project than just popcorn removal!)

This is the cupboard, with all the doors and shelves removed. You can also see the wagon wheel is gone, but the two antique brass eyeball spots were still in the ceiling. They're not in the right places, either. But let's not change the subject.

Taking the cupboard itself down was really rather simple. Undo some screws and, voila!  It's down.

Before going on, please look at that last photo at the kitchen ceiling. Don't you just love the industrial-look florescent tube lights??

So the original kitchen ceiling was an "illuminated ceiling." At the bottom edge of the soffits, there was a metal framework which held translucent plastic panels. These hid the florescent lights and made it appear that the whole ceiling lit up. When we first moved into the Haven, I asked Todd to remove the panels: they brought the whole ceiling lower and made me uncomfortable, like the ceiling was "coming down on me." We had intended to replace the light fixtures, but never could come up with something that we really liked to put there.

I'm sure we had guests over at the house that would look up at those old industrial lights, and wonder at us: was that REALLY our choice of light fixtures? Ugly!!  So, the old lighting in the kitchen would have to go now, too. Finally!

But, first thing's first: removing the popcorn.

It's really not difficult, but it is rather messy. We draped the whole room in plastic:

To remove the popcorn (or acoustical ceiling), Todd uses a plastic garden pump sprayer with water in it. He evenly sprays down the ceiling a couple of times, and lets the water soak in. When it's good and damp, he comes with a 6" scraper and runs it right along the sheetrock. The popcorn comes right off in  6" wide strips. He's careful to take it at the right angle so that he doesn't damage the damp paper of the sheetrock -- that would mean more repairs later.

This next picture has the edges of the ceiling with popcorn removed, and shows you what can happen to the tape-and-plastic when you ramp up the overall humidity by spraying a bunch of water on the ceiling:

We've always found it's least messy if one of us follows Todd around with a garbage can underneath him. If the popcorn falls right in, then it's that much less to clean up off the floor.

 

Insert: When we decided to do this project during our Spring Break, we decided to keep it a surprise for our single college kids (Cameron and Alyssa), who were planning on coming home for the week between their semesters -- which would be the week AFTER our break. So, this whole project was rather hush-hush from them. (It wasn't a total surprise to everyone, but that's a different story.)

 

SO.

 

Next part of the job was removing the soffit, to which the cupboards had been attached. To really open up the space, we wanted that gone, too. Todd says we were really fortunate that the soffits were framed and built the way they were -- it might have been a worse/bigger job than what it actually was.  However, that doesn't begin to address the fact that the soffit was FILLED with attic insulation. The loose, blown-in stuff, not the bats. Oh, yes, it was.

 

Can I just say that I went and worked the store during this part of the project? Because Todd had our employee come help with this part. They filled SEVERAL black plastic bags FULL of this insulation (vacuumed it out with a Shop-Vac). We'll put the insulation back up there after we're all done with installing lighting fixtures.

 

Then he cut open the bottom of the soffit, which looked like this:

 

Here, with the soffit gone, and framing in at ceiling height:

Now, if I were good, I would have photos of the in-between part. But I think I must have gone on camera amnesia, because there are no photos ...... of the piece of sheetrock that went up at ceiling level, the new metal trim corners, the mudding, taping, and texturing.

I'm pretty sure I looked a bit bizarre as I was standing on the countertop, helping Todd hold up the replacement sheetrock until it was screwed on.  Ha!

And thanks go out to Wade, who came and helped with the new texture on the ceiling, too!

So, we jump ahead to painting:

You can see the edges where the old soffit had been. Todd is pretty meticulous when it comes to feathering out the seams, and it looks like there never was a soffit there.

Remember, all of this work was done "under the gun", as we tried to hurry and get it finished before the college kids showed up late on the Friday night of Spring Break.

Almost the first words out of Cameron's mouth were, "You changed the dining room light. I can tell from here." He was still in the entryway, and hadn't yet turned the corner to get the full view of the new dining/kitchen area. He could just tell that the lighting was different.

And actually, this is more like what he saw:

Because the recessed lighting fixtures weren't quite finished off -- we were waiting for some trim rings to arrive -- so the lights were literally hanging down out of their fixtures. And, the new dining fixture also hadn't arrived -- we changed our minds and moved the first dining fixture into the kitchen and got a more, um -- exciting? -- light fixture for the dining room. That was not installed until after the kids were gone and back at college again.

And, can I say also, that we've gone completely to LED lighting in these rooms -- we are so done with the CFL's. After trying different bulbs, we decided that we like the "warm white" bulbs (better than "bright white", and better than "daylight" -- which actually surprised us), because of the effect of the light. I would encourage you also to try different brands, as well. One brand's flood light actually had a spot light effect, so it was a "loser" for us, and we changed brands, with better results. Now with LED lights, it is no longer a worry to have ALL THOSE LIGHTS ON for hours. Win!!

Technically, this whole project still isn't quite done. We have a few more recessed lights that will be going into the remaining soffits, which will be worklights for on the kitchen counters. And the kitchen sink light has to be changed again, so there's a few things left.

But, despite that, here come the "After" photos for you.......

(deep breath!)

(Isn't it AMAZING??? I am SO thrilled with these results!!)

Here is the new dining room light, which is the literal replacement for the old wagon wheel:

That was a "some assembly required" project -- Todd stayed up quite late one night just hanging each one of those glass teardrops on the light fixture. One. By. One. (While I slept comfortably in bed. This one task may just ensure him a place in heaven.)

Todd relocated this light, so it is centered in the room. MUCH better!! He also took out the old eyeball spotlights, and put 8 new recessed lights all around in the dining area. No longer are we dependent on one fixture to light that entire room!

You may have noticed our TV on the counter in the before shots. Now that the cupboards are gone, we've raised it up, and it's now mounted on the side of the cupboard:

And no, the side of the cupboard is not finished. Todd will have his cabinet guy come and make a finish panel to hide the scar of the old cupboards. At one point in their lifetime, these cupboards have been re-faced, so the darker color behind the TV is the original finish of the cupboards, before the re-facing.

The mounting bracket is a full-movement one, so we can rotate the TV from side to side, and view it from either room. We'll also be running the TV cables into the cupboard, rather than have them draping down the side of it. It's coming.

And, finally, here's a view from the kitchen looking back:

The effect here is incredible! I am SO happy we did this, and I am SO thankful for Todd's many talents!! It is a world of difference in there!!

And, it is yet another example of the Domino Theory of Home Improvement: "Since we're doing this, we might as well do that......"