Stomp Ceiling - Living Room Decision

After injuring my neck and back on a very small hallway stomp ceiling that I worked on for 2 1/2 or 3 hours, and still having texture on the ceiling, I was at a point where I had to decide if it was worth smoothing out the rest of the ceiling or living with a little texture in my life.  I was thinking that a little texture might not be a bad thing and I was prepared to accept it.  I was also prepared for more neck and back strain to scrape the living room ceiling (although I was really NOT looking forward to the terribleness that I knew awaited me).  When Susan was here helping me with the fireplace she said 'you have to get rid of the texture.  It looks like water damage.  Why go through all this trouble to make it look just okay.  Let's do it right!  We can mud and sand it down.'  I knew she was right...and I knew she wasn't going to back down (which I love!).  Last night I began watching 'how to mud drywall ceiling' videos and I watched really cool dustless sanding techniques.  I was working my way up to really wanting to do the extreme amount of work that flat ceilings require.

My FB friend Cristi (who knows her stuff - she is on the HGTV show 'Elbow Room') warned me that 1/4 inch drywall over the existing ceiling or demolishing the current ceiling and putting up a new ceiling was the way to go with stomp texture.  I guess I can be stubborn sometimes because I still attacked the ceiling by scraping and rubbing with the wet sponge.  Maybe I was dreaming of discovering a previously unknown technique that would soon be featured on HGTV (just kidding, sort of).  My sweet husband who just doesn't care one way or other about the ceilings just bit his lip and let me experiment with my dream of smooth ceilings.

I have a great resource in my life - someone with an engineer's mind who is a true DIY-er.  When I was a kid he watched 'Bob Vila' and 'This Old House' and all of these 'boring' TV shows (boring to my 8 year old self).  He had me on our rooftop with a hammer, helping him re-shingle the house when I was 10.  My mom had to be careful about what she complained about around the house because if she, in a contemplative/dreaming state of mind only, suggested the possibility of taking down a wall, my dad would go get a sledge hammer and take the wall down. 

He finished the basement of the house I grew up in all by himself (well he had me...shoulders slumped, sad look on my face, half-heartedly helping him).  He tore down and put on a new complicated deck, built a 'Romeo and Juliet' style balcony off the master bedroom for my mom (because she said 'what do you think about doing a balcony?'), gutted and re-built two bathrooms in my house with Erich, finished our basement with Erich, and an almost infinite amount of other things.  He just put in these awesome iron double doors at his house (they really look great), and he buys fixer-upper houses and completely renovates them.  He assembles a great team and does a beautiful and ethical job so anyone who buys one of his houses is a lucky person!

Anyway, I talked to my dad about my ceiling dilemma and he immediately said 'either put up 1/4 inch drywall over your current ceilings or tear the ceilings down and put up new ones.'  So today I timidly texted him to ask if he would help me (but not do it for me because I REALLY want to learn).  My dad called a few minutes later and said 'sure I'll help you. When do you want to start?'  I said 'well I'm leaving town for a week on Friday so how about next Saturday?'  My always energetic and project loving dad said 'how about tomorrow?'  HAHA!!!  Turns out he was serious. 

So, we start operation 'stomp ceiling demolition' tomorrow at 4pm (sharp, he's punctual and so am I).  Susan and Chris are coming over to help - I am so grateful to have such good friends!  I'm looking forward to getting through this project and helping them with some of their renovations as well!