Update at the Flip House Jan. 9, 2015

Boy am I glad the holidays are over as this year was definitely the busiest I've ever been in my entire life.  Luckily I was able to squeeze in a day or two here and there to get some work done at the Flip House and it is really coming together and looking good! 

But before I go into details and show photos....guess who's now a knock down expert?  This girl!  First lets start with my outfit of the day:

It's perfect because it's super easy to put on, has a built in hood in case you get caught out in the rain, and it's designed to hide any Christmas cookies you may have eaten over the holidays.  The nice solid white color also allows you to accessorize in any way you see fitting.  I chose to forgo any accessories in this photo though, I just let the jumpsuit speak for itself and be the main star of the show.

Now some of you may not know why I'm dressed like this or what knock down means so I will explain it briefly.  Most homes have it in some form (especially newer homes) and you've probably seen it a million times.  It's the plaster texturing that is applied to drywall whether it be the ceiling or the home's walls in order to give a more modern and updated look.  Back in the day the knockdown was done by hand and some styles looked like vinyl records.  Today it is generally done with a machine filled with diluted plaster that is blown onto the surface to create the texture.

Long story short, I bought a knock down gun and went to town all by myself!  I read the instructions that came with the gun and just jumped right into it, learning along the way.  It's really quite easy if you just have some patience.  The only con about doing it yourself is it is a very heavy gun, especially when the hopper is filled with plaster.  I can pretty much only do one or two walls/ceilings at a time depending on how big they are before my arm conks out on me and I can no longer lift it up.  The ceilings are the worst of course because your arm is outstretched above your head the entire time.

Another thing I learned along the way is to close your mouth when you are spraying overhead.  Yes, it seems like an easy thing to do but I am a mouth breather especially when I'm doing something physical.  Every time I would fire up the gun to start spraying knock down I would forget until plaster fell in my mouth.  Also you need to wear safety goggles lest you want plaster in your eyes too.  Learned the hard way on that one as well.

This is what my face looked like after my very first knock down application:

The preparation is also pretty grueling as you have to completely tape off the walls so as not to get any knock down anywhere but the ceiling.  This took longer than it actually did for me to spray the ceiling.  The first room I applied knock down on was the front bedroom.

And here's a close up of the finished ceiling texture:

I chose to do an Orange Peel texture so that it would be as subtle as possible since my mom has a deep aversion to knock down for some reason.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out though especially since it was my first time doing it and no one showed me how!

I also put knock down on the stairway walls and ceilings going into the basement because there used to be wallpaper on the one wall that left a very funny texture behind once I peeled it all off.  The knockdown hides all those flaws and makes it look new again.  Here's what it looks like now:

The walls still need to be painted but it already looks tons better than what it did.  Below are some befores and afters in case you need to refresh your memory.

Front Bedroom Before:

  Front Bedroom After:

Basement Stairwell Before (note the lovely pink contact paper hiding a junction box in the second photo):

Basement Stairwell After:

It's coming along and I have even more updates to share with you very soon!  As for the front bedroom here's what we have left to do before we can call it done:

• Hang new ceiling fan
• Re-hang the newly painted doors
• Build an access door in the closet to cover the plumbing behind the tub
• Rip up carpeting and determine condition of the hardwood flooring underneath

Here's what we have left to do to the basement stairwell before we can call it done:

• Add trim around new back door
• Paint walls and ceilings
• Install light sconce above junction box
• Install decorative cover over ugly junction box
• Install linoleum on landing
• Paint stairs
• Paint trim

It's so exciting to see that we are now putting the house back together instead of just tearing it up!

A Little Bit of Randomness:

• I'm so glad the holidays are over.  I had eight different birthday and Christmas events to attend from December 20-Jan 1.  Two of the events were an hour away and one of the events was 4.5 hours away.  I'm just now starting to recover.  Thank goodness I don't have kids yet or I would be pulling out my hair! 

• My niece asked me for a real starfish and salt water tank for her fifth birthday this month.  She wants to call him Patrick.  Hopefully she's not too disappointed that I can't make that happen.  This is the same girl who asked for a real penguin last year.

• I went up to Wisconsin for one of my Christmas events and my boyfriend accidently dropped a penny into my seatbelt buckle.  It was wedged in there so well I had to get a new seatbelt buckle at a local salvage yard.  I told him when he went in to pick it up to make sure it was cute first and looked like it belonged in my car.  He was not amused.  Who would have thought a penny could cost me $50 plus tax.  Don't trust your pennies!