Ceilings Complete!

Earlier in the month I had a work event that went after hours and I ended up working a double shift... which meant I needed to take a day off to adjust my hours... and being the productive little bee I am, I decided to take a Friday off work so I could make the most of a home improvement weekend.

The end result?

I'm super excited to say that I won't have to paint another ceiling for a very, very, VERY long time!

My right arm is currently in a state of rebellion, and super sore, but I managed to paint the living room, dinning room and kitchen area all in a single day!

But before we touch on painting, I have to throw a shout out to the savior of the home improvement project... HUBS.

Hubs was a super hero helper and during the week before my scheduled paint day, he and I stayed up late after little man went to sleep, despite having work the next day, and together we taped plastic all over the living room and kitchen.

This is one of those things I will hands down say is WORTH the time spend to put up PLASTIC....

Drywall dust and mud get EVERYWHERE if you don't put up plastic and I had no desire to actually hand wash and clean everything I own in the condo... because it doesn't matter what room your sanding... it will find a way to get into the bathroom and down the hall... because dust carries well in the air and the wind.

Hubs looking like santa after sanding
our newly textured ceiling

We also made a point to put up plastic to block off the hall that leads to the rest of the place, essentially creating a plastic bubble.

So hubs used the ladder to hand sand our whole ceiling with a sanding brick in the middle of the night.

He looked like a pretty epic Santa clause when he was done.

If your wondering where I was during all the sanding, I was sitting on the tile in the hallway petting roxy safely behind a sheet of plastic.

My asthma has been acting up lately to the point where I actually got an inhaler from the doctor and have been using it a couple of times a week because I find myself wheezing late at night or early in the morning... the idea of sanding everything, even with a mask, was unappealing to my lungs and unlike painting, is something anyone can really do with little instruction... (We have a rule in our house that I paint... because I will be the worst critic of someone else who paints and that's not healthy for our marriage).

So, since I was hesitant to sand everything, hubs knocked it out like a rock star with his incredibly long and manly arms... He technically didn't need a ladder and could have used the step stool, but he didn't want me to feel like a shorty, lol.

Look what I found mom...

I'm darth vader...

So, since hubs sanded everything, I wanted to make the most of an entire day off of work while our little dude would be chilling at daycare with his little peeps.

So, I told myself I had a single day to paint the living room, dinning room, and kitchen area.

Ambitious, yes, but do-able.

I've learned a few tips and tricks since I've really dented the painting of our condo.

• If you wrap your roller or brush in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge, you can avoid cleaning it for WEEKS and then just re-use it...

Yup, I've had a paint roller in my fridge for around 6 weeks now... or whenever I finished the ceiling in our bedroom. Took it out of the fridge for a minute or two to warm it up to room temperature and then continued on.

He loved the home depot car and
didn't want to leave so he tried to
hide from us.

• When painting a ceiling, you don't need painters tape. 

Your supposed to always paint your ceiling before you paint your walls because even the BEST painters tape with "leak lock" and easy clean technology won't prevent drips from the ceiling touching the wall by getting under the tape... 

I know this because I've taken the time to tape it out.. and have bought the so called leak lock pricey rolls of blue tape... and it doesn't make for a clean line.

So it's really not worth it to tape it off until you actually go to paint the wall... (and even then, I don't really use painters tape. I take a very small art brush and hand paint my "edges" to get a constant line that looks clean because in these older condos, the walls with the texture just don't allow you to get a straight line to work with.) 

In other homes where your lines might be cleaner, the tape is nice so your roller doesn't hit the newly painted ceiling...  but if your careful and if you paint your own edge it's not really needed.

But the ceiling is FINALLY one single color... not four different whites or yellows... and it looks SOOOO much better in person. Pictures just don't do it justice!