Naked ceiling repair 101
2006-01-05

Well, I'm supposed to be on vacation this week, but between Drs appointments car stuff and redoing the entire bedroom, I haven't felt like I've relaxed much. Add to that that M.E. got called in at 2.00 am this morning and well, we're all dragging a little today.
The bedroom project is going slowly. The ceiling repairs took longer than expected. The house, when it was built thirty something years ago had speakers built into the ceiling. Well they and the system they were once connected to are no longer around but the metal discs that supported them are still there. I'm making them go away.
It is really fun work, really.... Ok, maybe not... You get to fill in a zillion little holes with goo, and then try and match the original ceiling texture and look. I thought I had a find. Mega Home Store up the street had ceiling in a can. How tough could something called ceiling in a can be right?
The directions said to cover everything in a three mile radius, not to push the nozzle for more a than 1 second at a time It only takes 4 seconds to empty this giant can. Sure... It also said it that it would make a mess. OK, how much of a mess can one spray can make? Yeah I know it is a pretty big can, but I covered the furnature in the local area and gave it my first effort.
Well, three days later I'm still finding crud from my first attempt. This stuff expands as it comes out and it errupts like a very small but angry volcano. My clothes were covered, the room was covered fun, fun, fun and I still had one more to go. Oh the best part? When it dries it turns to a cement like substance that is impossible to remove from ANYTHING... Fun, fun, fun...
The second effort went more to the plan. I duct taped plastic around the speaker in a shower curtin esk fashion. That would contain most of the mess. The only problem, I'd be at the bottom of that shower. Well I already ruined one set of work clothes, so I fixed that problem by not wearing any. Ok almost not any, there were still parts where you just don't want to be trying to scrub ceiling gunk out of, if you know what I mean... This effort contained the mess to the plastic and me, one of wich was thrown out and the other which needed serious scrubitation I'll let you figure out which was which.
The windows now have three coats of primer and one coat of Gloss enamel on them. The casings will get their coat of Gloss as soon as I finish here. The walls have been patched and priming the trim work is next. With a little luck the ceiling will get painted today too. Puppy is not happy with any of this. He hates change. He'll survive. I hope I do.
Happy Thursday,
Ron

Previous - Next