Before + Progress Pictures: The Historic House By The Water: Office, Part 3

Before + Progress is an ongoing series keeping you up to date on whatever project is currently occupying our time. There is still lots to be done at this point to make the Progress photos actually qualify for the coveted After stage.

Why haven't I delivered on my promise? No, I haven't already been tempted by another property. (Yet.) It's because I entirely forgot that I wouldn't have an internet connection until the office is near completion. Totally slipped my noggin. In fact, I'm typing this on Frecklehead's laptop. The problem? In an unshockingly genius move I uploaded (then deleted from my camera) the pictures of our office progress onto my laptop.

Yep, the one without an internet connection. (This should come as little surprise to those of you familiar with my technical prowess.) Well. I guess I won't be lobbying for Mensa membership anytime soon. And I was so sure this was my year.

No matter. We can always chat about Satchel's toilet paper habit in the interim. It'll only be a few days more until you're privy to all of our office's gory makeover specifics, anyway. At least you can plan accordingly now. You know, buy your popcorn, stock up on notepads, hire the pothead 16 year old down the street to corrupt your children for a couple of hours. (Relax, I'm kidding. Television does a fine job of corrupting them without the expense.)

'Till then, I've managed to drum up a couple of photos of the office to hold you over.

Double click on the photos for a close up view.


The textured ceiling in the office before (left) and after (right). The fan went buh-bye too. Thank goodness.

Stop huffing and puffing, I know it may not look fascinating online but, trust me, the difference in person is astounding. And look closely and you'll see our blood, sweat, and tears on that ceiling. Okay, not really, but maybe a little blood. Andrew did get a papercut this morning.

Actually, this improvement was pretty easy. The ceiling had a bizarre texture that wasn't quite popcorn, but wasn't quite flat. Husband hated it. With the help of a wide scraper and a Ryobi sander we were able to rid that bad boy of his blemishes without too much trouble. Plus, we did away with the ceiling fan, 'cause 1980s E.T era style just isn't our speed. We put it on the curb, and it disappeared in, like, 30 seconds. Yo, San Marco, we've got lots of giveaways this week. (That's me waving both of my arms in the air like a lunatic.)

We're actually quite pleased with how painless the ceiling was to rectify, and how well it turned out if I do say so myself. I've dealt with my share of popcorn ceilings and whether I've had them scraped or floated, it's never been fun. This is actually the first one that I've tackled (with the redhead, of course) sans a contractor and it was no big dealio. What had me really concerned was that the scraper would snag some of that ceiling and it would snowball, leaving me with a ragtag plaster nightmare. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Phew. Bullet dodged.

By the way, you may notice lots of paint at the top of that wall in that second photo. Ugh. No, we're not just edging that. It's one of the lovely (by that I mean lots of stinkin' work) details that I'll talk to you about soon.

Soon.