"What do you mean it isn't popcorn"

What do you mean it’s not popcorn.

Project #1 – Scraping Popcorn Ceilings – Failure

Upon finally receiving the keys to the house, the first order of business was to attack the smell created by over 35 years of smoking by the previous owner.  Step one, scrape the nicotine stained acoustic (popcorn) ceilings.  We know…we know our hearts broke too when we came to the conclusion that we would have to remove this awesomely nostalgic marker of a true mid-century home, but we’ve come to grips.

We were so excited to begin the transformation of our mid-century home to our mid-century modern dream home.  Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.  The project began with much online research filled with reading blog posts and watching Youtube videos of other brave souls who attempted to remove this beautiful marker of outdated homes from across America.

With plastic drop cloths laid, one fancy scraping tool bought and masks and goggles on we were set to begin scraping.  Step one: wet the ceilings to make the popcorn come down like butter (it’s funny how many people actually said this stuff should come down “like butter”).  After waiting ten or so minutes we took the first pass of the scraper. NOTHING HAPPENED.  Step 2: Maybe we need to use more water. Ten or so minutes later NOTHING.  After much debate we figured this was not going to happen.

PROJECT #1 – Failure.

So we hired a painting contractor to come in and scrape and texture the ceilings.  It took them four entire days to scrape the ceilings and another three to do the texture.  But it turned out fantastic. 

We later found out from the contractor that the reason the popcorn did not “come down like butter” was due to it being stucco (yes the stuff that goes on the outside of your house, not the inside).      

Our New Diggs

After three years of searching and seeing almost every home that Long Beach had to offer we finally found THE house.  Well maybe it's not THE house today, but with the tender care of a sledgehammer, fine touch of some drywall mud and slick rolling of some paint we can make due until it becomes THE house.

To backtrack, Alexis and I began our search for a home together before we were engaged.  Our search took us through just about every neighborhood in Long Beach.  After what seemed like hundreds of viewings, open houses, offers and rejected offers still we had nothing to show for our search.  Finally upon becoming engaged we decided to call off the hunt for a while to focus on the wedding.

Fast-forward-- After 11 months of being happily married we began our search again.  With a new outlook and an entirely different housing market on the first day out we came across quite possibly the largest shoe box anyone has ever seen (a 1600sq ft 3 Bedroom 2.5 Bath Shoebox to be exact).  Upon entering the home we were overtaken, not with excitement, no not with the awe of beauty--but with the smell of cigarette smoke.  Getting past the smell was difficult but we could see the bones of an opportunity to create THE house in OUR style.  With a few cosmetic upgrades it would be a great first home.  Then came the deliberation.  Was it too expensive? Maybe, but not for the area.  Could we afford the mortgage? Yes.  Could we afford to renovate? In-time.  Could we get rid of the god-awful smell? ???

After much thought an offer was made, countered, countered and accepted!!!  After 45 days Plus two weeks of renting the house back to the woman we bought it from, plus two more days for her to remove the last of her belongings (or so we thought). We got the keys to our new house!!!

And the "fun" begins.  Check back for updates with all of our projects.