In Over Our Heads

 It's been a little while since we finished The Great Duplex Remodel and we've been looking forward to our next project.

It's a project I've been wanting to do since we bought our house  26 1/2 years ago.

Although the duplex paint has only recently dried on my work shirt, I'm eager to jump into a new remodel. Stan is equally excited to have me push him into the same remodel.
Yup, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 Yes, kids, we're finally getting rid of the popcorn ceiling.

We began on Saturday and spent several hours preparing...

...then dug right in. About 20 minutes into the scrapping, we got a call from our trailer house renter, complaining that his fridge had stopped working and all of his food was melting. Stan left to evaluate the problem....

 ...leaving me to work alone for a couple of hours. Kids, you know how fabulous my balance is, and will be surprised that I don't actually remember falling off the ladder Monday. Actually, I don't remember Monday at all.....

Stan finally returned. Turns out the renters had never vacuumed under or behind the fridge, and even more puzzling, had turned it down to "1". Stan showed them how handy a vacuum is for cleaning fridge lint goobers and suggested trying a higher cold setting, like  "5". Renters are interesting.

It took only 8 hours to clear the ceiling of all that popcorn and turn our floor into a dusty, muddy mess.

By the way, our chairs were too big to move downstairs. We've decided that keeping your living room furniture in the kitchen is a bit awkward. We probably won't stay with this look.

We are also updating the lighting while we're making a mess. These lovely 1980's lights have seen a lot of use over the years. We've turned them on and off probably a billion times over the decades. They've been on for millions of hours. In the nearly 27 years we've lived here we have NEVER had to replace a light bulb from this fixture. We've come to the only reasonable conclusion--they are powered by elves riding little elf generator bicycles.

Stan had to actually pry the wood molding off to get at the bulbs.  Apparently the builder was in cahoots with the elves and knew we'd never need to replace a burned-out bulb.

Stan looked for the elves, but they must have heard him coming and cycled off.

The space the lights are in is about 18" deep, 6' long, and 2' high. Stan will be sheet rocking it over, but not before we stash all of our gold in there.

You can't even buy this plexiglass panel that covered the light anymore--we just know we're going to become rich by selling our two slightly used panels online.

The new lighting will be recessed canister lights, spaced around the living room, giving us all-around better illumination.  Unfortunately, Stan doesn't like me sticking my fingers into electrical sockets, so I'm consigned to watching for the rest of today.

 

I thought I'd go to the mall, or library, or find a good restaurant to relax in while Stan slaves, but something about driving around on ice-covered roads in 4 degree weather is just not that appealing. I'll probably just stay home and give Stan helpful suggestions. He loves that.

Stan would like all interested people to know that nope, he won't depopcorn or rewire at your house so DON'T ASK!!!!

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to the Jones's Project!