The House: Ceilings

The house Meric and I bought was built in the 80s. There are a few 80s features that Meric and I are planning on updated as part of our remodel. One update that is needed throughout the entire house is the ceilings. Ceiling are one of those things you don't pay much attention to unless they look bad. Lets just say you would pay attention to ours. Right now the ceilings have the lovely popcorn texture that is a dingy white and falling off in some parts.

Popcorn ceiling

The first room we tackled was the downstairs bathroom. It is the smallest room and therefore we figured the easiest. (Not at all the case and those details are coming soon in another blog) Not only is this bathroom downstairs it is under the stairs. The ceiling is lower in this room and with the thick popcorn texture the ceiling felt even lower. For this room we decided to take all of the texture off the ceiling. Once we scrapped it all off we cleaned and patched the ceiling. It is hard to make the ceiling completely smooth and perfect so we decided to add a little sand texture to the ceiling paint. The results were a nice subtle texture and a ceiling that didn't feel like it was coming down on you.

Sandy ceiling

The next ceiling I de-popcorned was in Mel's room. Her ceiling was completely popcorn intact and didn't have any spots to patch or repair. For her ceiling I decided to gently knock down/scrape off a layer of popcorn. This was a very messy process but left a nice flatter texture to the ceiling. After painting the ceiling white I was very happy with the results. The subtle texture was very nice.

Knockdown popcorn ceiling

I am planning on doing the same thing to the rest of the ceilings in the house. It is a little crazy to do this work to make something you don't really notice. I do love the results though and hope it is worth all the effort.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Ever since I was a kid I was a huge baseball fan. I especially love going to the games. There is just something about cheering on you favorite team with hundreds of other people doing the same thing. The sights, sounds and smells of the stadium just add to the action on the field.

In the past several years I haven't followed baseball as much as I use to. I still am a fan and remain a loyal fan to the teams I picked as a kid, the Seattle Mariners and the Atlanta Braves. Yes I follow baseball enough to know that those two teams are among the worst in baseball right now but I am not a "fair weather" fan. I picked them and I am sticking with them through thick and thin. Being from WA I have had several opportunities to watch the Mariners play on their home field. I even got to see them play the Braves. But I had never gotten to see the Braves play at home... until now. For my birthday Meric got me a couple of tickets to see the Braves play the evil Yankees. (I have always been a Mariners and Braves fan and I will always hate the Yankees and Phillies. I may like some of the players on their teams but I stick with who I hate just as much as who I like.)

So Meric, Mel and I headed to Mel and Meric's first professional baseball game. There was a special promotion/theme for this particular game: Superheroes. Before the game we recieved Braves' superhero capes and got to walk around the baseball field. It was so much fun. Mel loved being all dressed up and parading around. 

After parading around the field we found our seats above the first base line and settled in to watch the game. It was so fun to watch the game and cheer with the fans. I was so excited to do the tomahawk chop all with the other Braves fans. Of course playing the Yankees there were just as many of their fans there too. Mel actually started plugging her ears with her fingers for the first time while at the game,

It was every time the Yankee fans cheered. Unfortunately they cheered a lot but the Braves fans were hardcore and kept up the cheering and chopping. I loved watching with other Braves fans. Mel had a lot of fun too but started getting restless by the 5th inning and so we let her run around and explore the stadium some more.

After sharing some ice cream in the 7th inning we decided it was time to head home. Getting to the stadium early and having a 2 hour drive ahead of us we decided the day had been long enough. Plus Mel we definitely due for a nap and I didn't want to get stuck in post game traffic with a cranky baby.

I loved going to the stadium, walking on the baseball field, and watching the Braves play on their home turf. Even though they lost 20-6 (yeah they are pretty bad this year) I still had a lot of fun. It was even more fun to share the day with my little family.