Popcorn Ceiling Removal

I removed my 70's valance from 5 locations in my house. This left me with ceiling choices as when you remove a valance you need to fix the ceiling. I decided to remove all the popcorn ceiling in my house and go with a flat modern ceiling. A ton of work but worth it.

Here is the Valance removal post.

This is what my popcorn ceilings look like.

This is my first attempt to scrape the ceiling. 

I struggled with this popcorn ceiling that is for sure. It was not coming off easy and it seemed to be painted over which makes it harder to remove. I sprayed, I sanded, I rented a pole sander, I scraped. In the end I bought a proper 1 gallon sprayer, used a mix of dish soap, vinegar and hot water, spray twice and scrape away. I hold a bucket under my scraper so it is not too messy. I got pretty good at it.

My ceilings did not end up smooth, not even close, the scraping removed the rough popcorn but left a patchy finish. So I had to skim coat and sand all my ceilings.

Scraping high ceilings!

All new lights, plugs, switches, blinds, paint and trim.

I also removed wood paneling in the dining room and replaced it with drywall.

Tree Fort and Swing Set Combo

I built a swing set and tree fort for my boys using a tree as part of the swing frame. It is super strong and heavy duty all around.

Bird Station

Bird feeders are messy, so I built a bird station where I could install it at the edge of my yard, feed the birds, see the birds and not have to clean up the mess.

The roof is covered in broken glass and rocks from a beach we go to. We cleaned all the glass from the beach fire pit area, and there was a lot, so I brought it home, cleaned it and put it on the roof using cement mortar.

The bird house on the top we picked up in Washington, one of those yards with lots of stuff and hand made Bird Houses for sale $10!

Deck Ceiling

I finished my deck ceiling today. I used channel siding for the ceiling, I wanted it to be different and look good. I think it turned out pretty good.

I was going to butt up against the house, but with a suggestion from a friend, I created a faux border at the rear using the same lumber as the header board. I had to remove some of the siding to do this. In the long run, I am hoping for new siding all around.

I used Tung oil for protection

New Solar deck lights

New Upper Deck

It took me a while to complete this deck project, time, money and weather all played a part in this build.

Below is the before picture, the deck had stairs and 2x4 railings.

Before

I had ordered a custom 24 x 1 cedar fascia board and the sides as well, mounted it and my posts and it curled and split on me. So I had to scrap that idea and start over.

I removed the new trim board, the old fascia and header board and installed a new 2" rough cedar board on the front and sides. The deck had a bit of rot, which I had fixed but decided since I was starting over to rip out everything This deck had three layers of plywood that needed to be removed, the last layer was tucked inside the house and part of the original floor, so I had to leave it and add a new layer. I wanted my rough 6x6 posts mounted within the deck so after all the new deck was glued and screwed I cut out my post holes, shimmed them level and plumb, and used 8" Timber LOK screws to mount the posts, they look good, no pre-drilling and super strong. I also used Simpson ties underneath. Try as you might, my posts are not moving even a mm.

Next I installed flashing and prepped the deck for waterproofing.

 If I went with vinyl, it would have to wrap around my flashing and I really wanted my flashing to show, so I searched for a good roll on product and found Tufflex, it is a urethane coating, thick and strong. Fairly expensive product, but I think worth it in the end. The finish is not perfect though, I also had so many bugs landing in it that made it even worse. It is a self leveling product and you use a small notch trowel to spread it on. Once you are used to it, it is pretty easy to work with. I was unhappy with my base coat, so I did a second coat, then two top coats. It is messy and impossible to clean up on tools and anything you touch with it. This whole process took me a while, I had crazy weather to deal with and had to wait for the right time to do this waterproofing.

Finally I can move on to some carpentry, I made bases for each post, using glue and 1" staples. I made  them fit just right and left them free floating so as not to trap water and with effort can raise them up a bit, if I ever do a fresh top coat.

Using rough cedar 2x4's I mounted my lower and up rails using trim head screws by GRK. They are strong and hide very well. I used two screws on the outside and one on the inside of each rail.

I mounted my rough cedar 2x6 top rail using the same GRK screws toe-nailed underneath and in the middle of each long section I used a skinny 5" screw bolt just to help the board stays in place.

Next is the balusters, I wanted a large sweep space so I used a normal 2x4 for spacing of my lower rail, my balusters are 40" so the layout is simple from there. My baluster spacing worked out so well for each section I can't even believe it, where the space at the end is pretty close to the 4" spacing used for each baluster. Code is 100mm, which is a hair under 4".

The easiest way to install these is mark the middle of the rail, clamp your 4" block to the middle of the rail middle and mount your baluster on either side, then use your block and continue to the ends. Plumb of course.

Most 6x6 posts are really 5-1/2", my posts are real 6x6 cedar, so I had to search and find oversize postcaps. Your choices are very limited with this size, but I found some nice copper caps.

I wanted a little extra detail so I had some metal brackets made up locally, I used diamond head screws to mount them which I had to order from the states as I could not find any here.

I used Behr Cedar Natrual Tone Transparent Stain on this deck. Next up will be the ceiling and a few other minor details.