The Sky is Falling
Before Christmas we noticed that the bathroom ceiling was starting to crack a bit. Strange? We live in a ranch so there is no weight on the ceiling and our attic has blown insulation which prohibits us from going up there. My theory at the time was to just ignore these tiny cracks as I only saw them if I craned my neck up. Look eye level and problem solved for free.
Why can’t my theory ever work?????
The cracks continued on a decline and were now covering the entire middle portion of the bathroom ceiling. Unfortunately, there was no more ignoring the problem. My imagination went running with the potential problems.
There was the normal…water damage or too much moisture.
And also the extreme…a small midget clown had been living in my attic and finally died and now his rotting body was soaking through my bathroom ceiling. How much would it cost to remove this? And would it mess with my blown in insulation. The crap that swirls in my head on a regular basis would astound you.
Since our house was built in ’65 the ceilings are not drywall, they are plaster. Let me take you on a small tangent about plaster. About 4.5 years ago when we moved into our new house we ripped down a butt load of wallpaper. And by butt load I mean, if I ever met the man who invented wallpaper he would be privy to a swift kick in the nuts. Our friends came over one night to “help’ us paint and tear down wallpaper. One of these friends got a little carried away with ripping and scraping and a huge section of plaster, approximately the size of Texas, was lying on my newly refinished hardwood floor. Deep breaths were required.
Since we’ve had previous experience with destroyed plaster and the time and skill necessary to repair said destruction, there was no way I was jumping on the “fix it yourself bandwagon” for this one. We called a drywaller we had used previously for his opinion on fixing the cracks. His suggestion was to just scrap down to the plaster and then he could skim it with some drywall mud a few times. Once that was done and sanded to the smoothness of a baby’s ass cheek we could doll it up with some fresh paint.
Mr. Drywall came yesterday to remove the cracked plaster and skim the first coat of drywall plaster. Halfway through the job he asked for a broom and dustpan to pick up some of the pieces. When he left he handed me a broken picture frame that he had knocked down and told me the damage was worse than expected on the ceiling and he would have to come back for another coat. Listen Lady, for those of you, who do not own homes, heed this piece of advice. No improvement project is ever simple. Something will inevitably go wrong and more money will be needed than initially anticipated.