Bubba's Bath Two.

Anyone have any idea what this is? Anyone? Anyone? It's not VooDoo Economics. It's a dreaded popcorn ceiling. Our house has them. Everywhere. Well except the two bathrooms now. My dad (aka Dude) scraped the "master bath" and I just scraped Bubbas bath. What a job. It's not that it's particularly hard, just gross. And neck twisting as anything having anything to do with a ceiling will be. I went online and looked at a bunch of websites that tell the supposed easy way to remove a popcorn ceiling and I'm here to tell you that there is no magic trick. I would only recommend that you use the widest metal scraper you can comfortably control. Merely so you can scrape the most area possible and finish the job as fast as possible. A spray bottle, a scraper and a big plastic sheet is all you need. Well, someone to lovingly rub your neck after the job is done is a great addition.

Side note: Drywall can't be sanded with normal sandpaper no matter what my husband tells you. You need to carry yourself to the hardware store and purchase a "drywall sanding screen". These are sold right next to the regular sandpaper. It's a dusty, dirty job and don't let anyone tell you different. End note.

So the technique I used was to lightly spray the ceiling with plain old H2O in an area no bigger than I could reasonable scrape without it drying on me. This is a light misting, not a soaking, just enough to moisten the popcorn(don't ya just love that word, "moisten" go ahead, say it out loud)  Then with your handy scraper, scrape lightly and the stuff just falls right off. Of course it falls right off into your hair, your eyes and all over the floor. That's where the big plastic sheet comes in. Some websites will tell you to cover everything and tape down plastic but I like to live dangerously and since for that moment Bubba was nowhere near, I just "laid" a plastic sheet over everything and when I was done I folded it up and dumped the stuff in the trash. Outside of course. And please wrap your eyes in some form of protection, it's no fun at all to get popcorn in them.

I found that spraying an area and waiting about 30 seconds to scrape is what worked best for me. Our popcorn ceiling was applied in 1987 so if your ceiling is newer you may need to wait longer. I also found that if I was careful, I didn't gouge the ceiling at all. This means taking your time. In my case that was difficult. They don't call me "instant gratification girl" for nothin'. But I perservered and was mostly successful. Nothing a little "drywall sanding screen" won't cure. 

I almost didn't stop to snap this photo because I was on a roll Baby! But I kept going and got 'er done. Now I just have to paint. And if Bubba would ever go to bed and stop throwing balls at my head I just be able to do that. Talk to ya soon.