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They did a real nice job on our carpets. A little more money, but it is a dry process, and we could walk on the floors immediately.
I would also come down on the side of scraping the popcorn prior to move in.
A good painter with a small crew can have it done in a couple of days, and the mess is much easier to deal with in an empty house.
I second the recommendation to get your floors done before you move furniture in.
I wish I'd had our floors refinished before moving all the furniture in. Now it's an overwhelming proposition that is at the bottom of our lists.
As far as popcorn ceilings, lightly popcorned ceilings don't seem worth worrying about. When your room is filled with furniture, they won't be very important. But if they bother you, you should definitely get it done before you move in any furniture.
As far as floors, in our lower level, we installed engineered hardwood that we bought from Lumber Liquidators. My husband and a 72-year-old woman put it in together. (I would have helped him, but I couldn't keep up with the 72-year-old powerhouse, who enjoyed the work.)
Ceilings first, paint second, hardwood floors last. Even with a quality paitner, they WILL scratch your floors. Most only put down a layer of paper (allbeit thick paper), they sill will get a scratch here or there.
Here's my tip - for your floors, check out a finish called Bona Traffic, instead of oil-based polyurethane. It's expensive ($100/gallon), but doesn't have the nasty smell of the oil, is much harder than oil, and lasts longer.
Someone recommended JD hardwoods in a previous post, and I second that!
I agree with the previous poster about the order of things... floors are always last whether you are doing carpet or wood. You will probably have to do some paint touch-ups but it's much easier to touch-up a scuff on a wall than on a floor.
If you do scrape the popcorn - do one or two smaller rooms first. I have seen people get the popcorn off only to discover that the ceiling was so uneven that no amount of spakling could get it to look right. Its not so noticable in a smaller room like a bedroom, but its very noticable in larger areas like the living room where people can see the ceiling from more of an angle. If the ceilings are really bad in the bedrooms, they will be worse in larger rooms and you might try living with them. It helps if you call it "textured" instead of "popcorn".
Ceilings first, paint second, hardwood floors last. Even with a quality paitner, they WILL scratch your floors. Most only put down a layer of paper (allbeit thick paper), they sill will get a scratch here or there.
Agree with the order in which Apex suggested.
Also, and this may be just me...but we ALWAYS say we are going to decorate the master bedroom and then it NEVER gets done!
We have nice furniture and a bedding set but that is about it. We've lived in 2 houses over the last 12 years and in both houses we have the same builders beige. It's the room nobody ever sees so once we move in other projects take priority.
Also, I like to decorate one whole room at a time rather than sporadic decorating. I like to have at least a few rooms to sit in and admire!
As for your floors, we are replacing our hardwoods in our lower level ourselves. You save a TON of money if you have the know-how to tackle some of those projects yourself. It isn't that hard to do...I just dread the demo of the old floors and not having a floor for a week or two.
Join Angie's List. If you're going to be doing that much, the $30 subscription is more than worth it. You'll be able to see grades for service providers and read detailed reports from people who've had the work done.
This is all REALLY helpful all, really making me think and organize. Thanks so much for your feedback so far.
Decided to keep the carpets in the upstairs, and got them thoroughly sanitized/cleaned/etc for $340 versus replacing ($3k+).
Still working on the hardwoods - I am looking at about 450 sq ft max, getting quotes around $2k for standard red oak 2.25" to match the other floors. Replacing all the wood throughout with nice wide dark planks (ideally what I want) is just too much. Curious to hear if $2k sounds about right.
Still waiting on my return quotes for the popcorn ceiling removal but my gut tells me I am looking at a lot there too. The person above who said be careful removing them because the ceilings may look uneven or warped has got me thinking...you are right, and that would suck. I also think its going to cost $3k+ to do the job and I am not so sure its worth it in the sense of our own time living here, or in terms of resale.
Aside from cleaning, hardwoods, painting, and ceiling...not sure what else there is to do while the house is empty. Many of the rooms were recently painted and look awesome so I think we are good there for now.
Hmmm...what else to do? Didnt even think about the outside, lots of landscaping to be done. Wow this is lots of stuff to think about.
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