On with the remodel!

So, all that stuff I said that Brian wanted to do to the house before the baby comes? It's happening- scraping and texturing of ceilings, painting of walls and ceilings, the whole bit. He is already finished with the first area which consisted of one of the upstairs bedrooms, the upstairs hallway and the upstairs bathroom.

He's prepped the next section (second upstairs bedroom, stairway, and downstairs front room- not the living room) and is starting on that today. In the front room he also took down an entire wall of mirrors and repaired the drywall behind them. For the record, if you think putting a mirrored wall in a room is a good idea, you're wrong. I like mirrors. I like big framed mirrors; I like mirrored closet doors; I like full length mirrors, but floor to ceiling wall to wall mirrors = BAD. You can't put anything against a mirrored wall, and it makes the room look cluttered because you see two of EVERYTHING! Anyway, yahoo for a regular wall!

Here's what I've learned about remodeling so far:
1) Scraping popcorn ceilings makes lots of dust. Don't worry, we had the popcorn texture tested and it is asbestos free so it's not mesothelioma-causing dust, just regular dust.

2) Paint is expensive. Maybe it's because I've never bought paint in large quantities before, but I was not expecting to spend as much as we did.

3) It's good to have a friend who buys lots of tools all the time for no reason so that when you remodel you can borrow his: ladder, air compressor, drywall texture thing, scaffolding (for the vaulted ceilings in the living room) and other miscellaneous tools.

4) It's good to have a husband who knows what he's doing. Otherwise a project like this could get out of hand in a heartbeat.

5) The best time to have your husband remodel is when you are pregnant and he isn't working. This is because: a) you can't even offer to help, b) he can get lots of work done during the day, and c) he has a VERY REAL deadline, so no procrastinating.

Anyway, so far so good! I'll post some before and after pictures when it's all done. Although the before pictures were taken when we were looking at the house before we bought it so none of the stuff in them is ours. Oh well, you'll still be able to see the difference.