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For the purposes of this update, we are going to skip over the nightmare that was "wall paper removal". After about a month of that, we decided that we would take down the popcorn ceilings over the stairway as well.

A little water and a taping knife, and the plaster came down fairly easily, actually.

It came down so easy that Sue couldn't seem to stop herself. She took a week off of work and continued the popcorn ceiling removal.

She did the living room and the dining room...

And continued all the way through the kitchen. In fact, the spare bedroom is the only room on the first floor that still has the popcorn ceilings. She did a tremendous job.

We did run into a couple of "surprises" under the plaster, but they were a pretty simple fix.

But for the most part, the ceiling was in great shape with well taped joints.

I did insist on sanding down the ceiling before painting. The ceilings came out great, but it made a huge mess.

Despite our best efforts to close doors and cover everything with plastic, the dust got everywhere. We ended up having to empty all our closets to rewash our clothes and empty our cabinets to all our pots, pans and dishes.

Finally, we painted the ceilings. A nice fresh white coat of paint really brightened up the rooms.

After everything else that came before, it was a small blessing to finish something in one weekend.

Next project was to paint the walls and the trim. We went through several different color combinations before we found one we liked. In fact, I think the living room ended up with 5 coats of paint before we made up our minds.

The living room was painted in a pumpkin butter. We think it really warmed up the fire place area.

The dining room and stairway received an indulgent mocha color. The white trim really pops off this color. It also goes well with our "beach" theme, but looks very formal at the same time.

After the painting was done, we decided to install crown molding that wraps the entire first floor. It really finishes all the rooms off nicely.