In a swirl about swirls

Wow, it's already Wednesday! So much has been going on. Monday the plasterers (mudders? Sheetrockers? Well, they didn't hang the sheetrock, Dave and his dad did that - so maybe drywallers . . .) came. When I got home, they had finished more than 50% of the drywall, including the ceiling from kitchen to dining room. In swirls. You know the texture that looks like an LP. Oh, you don't remember what an LP looks like? That's because this type of texture goes back before the phonograph was invented :-)

Here is a picture of the swirled ceiling texture:





Here's a close up of my ceiling:

Yikes! I didn't like it. I didn't know what to do. Chuck liked it. Russell liked it. Maybe I was over-reacting. I mean, who looks at the ceiling anyway? I didn't like the acoustic (popcorn) ceiling, but it didn't really bother me either (only when I had to paint it). Ugh! Painting - this would be just as difficult, right? Maybe even more difficult. For a minute I thought - maybe I could have them do the living room ceiling smooth and live with the kitchen and dining room, but then I remembered that the ceilings are basically open to one another for the most part. If they finished the living room, it would have to be swirls to match. That's a 12x20' space (25' if you count the hall) of swirls!



So, I screwed up my courage and called Dave. He explained that they wouldn't recommend a smooth finish due to the ceiling not being perfectly straight (so you'd see waves). I don't know - I think I could live with waves over the swirl :-) I asked what my options were. For a mere $250 premium, they would re-do the kitchen ceilings and they would do the LR ceilings in a "skip trowel" finish. It looks something like this:

I am much happier now! I know - I could have squabbled with Dave over the extra cost. They should have called me and confirmed the texture before they started, but honestly Dave's been great, and I think he may be eating any buffer he already had in the budget, so I didn't want to get into hard feelings over $250. There are pros and cons for how Dave works - he doesn't have the prices down to the last screw, which is a pro for not having to meet an allowance or doing a change control for every difference. OTOH, in situations like this, there's not a clear cut way to handle it.

The bottom line is - I am happy. I hope Dave is happy. And we'll all be happy!

Oh, did I mention that the cabinets arrived today? . . .