The Score is Harveys:1, Cottage Cheese Ceiling:0

PSSSST...I'm no longer blogging here!

You can now find me at

www.acottagegirl.com

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It's gone.  All gone.

Hubs and Son in Law kicked that bad boy to the curb.  And it wasn't hard.  Took maybe 5 hours with both of them working on it.

This little jobby made it MUCH easier, and I highly recommend getting one if you attempt this task.  About $20 at the Home Depot.

It has a scraper across the top, and then a frame to attach a bag to catch the evil cottage cheese....

Here it is in action....

Here's Hubs using the poor man's version.....

Uh, is that my antique table you're standing on, Hubs?

Basically the guys used spray bottles of HOT water to saturate  the ceiling (it wasn't *dripping* wet, but it was pretty durn wet).  Let it sit a couple minutes, and then started scraping.  It really just slid right off....like buttah.  Some places were more stubborn, but an extra misting usually took care of it.  It wasn't messy doing it this way either.

Messy is when they started sanding.....which we decided just wasn't worth it after going over it the first time.  We realized it was gonna take like a thousand hours of mudding and sanding to get it smooth.

So...we're taking the easy way out...

Beadboard Wallpaper

(that's not us, BTW, just the genius folks who posted a tutorial at the link)

Lots of girls have done it in blogland, so after stalking all the pictures, I decided beadboard wallpaper was for me and my family room too.  The hanging will commence this next weekend.  

In other family room news, we found some trim to go around the ceiling that's wide enough to cover the indecencies left by the builders when we removed the original orange wood plank:

It's $150 we weren't planning on spending, but such is the way of home improvement, eh?  

This puppy is just over 7 inches wide.  

We're also gonna add some under the mantel to beef it up.

And speaking of the mantel, I fiddled around with paint on the top portion (as that will be covered by paneling) trying to come up with a possible treatment for the bottom bricks to lighten things up without covering every inch in paint. Came up with this:

I first tried four things:
1. Painted the grout white like the walls, then dry brushing RL's Canvas Natural over the bricks. Ok, but something wasn't quite right.
2. Covered the entire brick with paint.  Icky.
3.  Dry brushing white over the brick to leave texture, leaving the grout as is.  Too much contrast.
4.  Rolling gently over the brick with the RL paint, leaving the grout as is.  And that was just right, like Baby Bear's Porridge. At least for now.  We'll see after I get everything back in the room.

Wouldn't want to commit or anything.

If you try this, your bricks need to be highly textured.  I used a roller for smooth surfaces, then got most of the paint off  in the tray before lightly rolling over the surface of the brick.  It took all of 7 minutes.  A few places I used a brush to reach (corners, near the floor), just made sure most of the paint was off the brush.  I would take a few steps back every now and then to catch any odd-looking areas.   

I think I like it.  Here was the inspiration pic I found:

(source)

I liked how it was white on top with a bit of color on bottom.  My fireplace is much larger than this, though, and the white grout didn't look right with the off white brick for some reason.  Maybe I should've tried a glaze?  Anyway, I went ahead and painted the whole top portion white like in the photo, just to see if I'd like it, and though I like the white over off-white, I think covering the top with painted white paneling like my walls will look better in my space.  I guess we'll soon see.

And finally, we're trying to decide on light fixtures.  I'm thinking of switching my ceiling fan with the dining room/office chandy.  It looks like this:

I'd add some shades...I like the ones in Ballard Designs:

Hubs isn't sure a chandy would look right, though.  I think it'd look awesome, especially if I can find some wall sconces that could use the same shades. 

My other idea is to move the '80's lantern fixture from my front hall in there....painted, of course, and glass removed perhaps.  But it might be too small for the space:

Ah, decisions decisions.  I have some pillow covers to sew, and I painted the trim on the mantel mirror too.  Again, gonna have to see everything together.   I'm already brimming with Christmas mantel ideas!  

I'll be collecting them at my inspiration blog:

::cottage crush collection::

So, for anyone keeping track, I am now in the middle of 4 room re-dos: dining/office, 2 boys bedrooms, and the family room.  I. am. a. nut.