The Bane of Popcorn Ceilings

I wrote this out by hand yesterday but didn't have time to post it:

Kraig has Fall Break today and tomorrow so we're on a holiday of sorts. Of course, for us right now that mostly means more time for house projects, but the kids had fun riding their bikes and we had a bonfire tonight. I've been able to concentrate more on one of the rooms we're trying to get painted and Kraig fixed two leaky faucets amid a multitude of other projects.

I know I've mentioned that I'm thankful for the projects--I do love the satisfaction of a job well done, but today I've felt rather curmudgeonly. I'm not totally sure why. Maybe it's because that room we're trying to paint is the first of a few rooms and we're now way off our intended schedule because the prep process has taken forever. I finally thought it was good enough to move forward and paint the ceiling, only to discover (once I'd put a layer of paint over it) that the spots I'd patched to hide old tape lines now show as a couple of snaky lumps. And I'm so fed up with it.

All of the ceilings in this home have popcorn finishes. Our home in Michigan had them and they were the first thing to go, and as we're picking our way through he room improvements here we're eliminating them. Thankfully they haven't been painted over so the popcorn comes off easily. We hate popcorn ceilings. The dirt and dust clings to the crevices and they're impossible to really clean. But they sure do cover a multitude of flaws. I'm sure when they're first sprayed on they're a refreshing change--white stipples hiding all of those tape lines or divots that can mar a flat ceiling. But they're just a cover, not a true fix, and like any temporary cover they don't resolve the root issue. I guess that's one reason why I'm so disappointed with our recovered ceiling. I wanted so much for it to be nice and clean, a fresh slate from the bottom up, and it's still flawed.

And I'm wondering about my angst. I feel like I've had some cover scraped off, a nice popcorn ceiling of vacation time, and I'm still all messy underneath. I've been sniping at the kids, and they've been sniping at each other. Even during some great one-on-one time with Clare today I had a difficult time tuning in and cheerfully responding to her chatter. I'm praying that tomorrow will be better or that God will show me clearly what's going on. In other words, I need him to work on getting my popcorn ceiling off and cleaning up the flaws underneath.

Or something like that....