After doing all the upgrades for our newly purchased home, there was no money left for the cosmetic stuff, so we have to do all our own painting.
The house was built in 1939 and was owned until 2017 by one family, every member of which was apparently a heavy smoker. The nicotine on the walls is so thick that it cannot be washed off completely, and in places it actually weeps! When we first moved in, I thought the kitchen had lovely almond colored ceiling tiles – certainly a custom upgrade, right? Not. They were the usual white tiles that had been seriously stained by nicotine.
This past weekend, hubby decided to paint that ceiling. Look at the difference:
Yes, that’s truly disgusting. But we’re working on it. There are already two coats of white up there, and we’re waiting to see if the nicotine comes through, which would require even more paint.
Next will be to cover over those neon-yellow, nicotine-oozing kitchen walls.
I can hardly wait.
Meanwhile, I’ve been busy with my camera. The photo at the top of this post is quite popular on Flickr.com (yay, me). I grumbled when I had to go into the basement at work to retrieve some documents, but that old safe down there made the trip worth it.
The Flickr.com theme of the week is Squared Circle – I hope everyone likes my submission, which I call “Fire in the Water“:
Yes, “Fire and Ice[Cream]” will be coming, but I have to wait for a day when I really want to eat my props, and have the time to do so.
Then, of course, there are the usual walk-in-the-woods-on-a-cloudy-day photos:
If only those geese had waited to fly over until I actually had my camera out. But no, they did so just as I was getting out of my car and by the time I got to the pond, they were already swimming. – and insisted on swimming away from me. Uncooperative little beasts.
Having now wasted the balance of my day, it is time for laundry and dog care.
TGIF, Everyone.
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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Images by Cordelia’s Mom/TeddyRosalie Studio
Cordelia's Mom, Still 
Wow!
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yep.
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That’s a LOT of nicotine. Must have been a whole family of multi-pack smokers!
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Most likely. It was so bad that you could smell the smoke that was inside the house while standing on the porch outside the house, with the door shut. We bought the house anyway.
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Oh my, I know your pain. We purchased a home with heavy smokers and every time we took a shower our bathroom walls would bleed nicotine. it is going to look so good when it’s all done.
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Yes, our bathroom was the same way. It was even worse than the kitchen. If I had enough money, I would have had the kitchen gutted and re-done, too.
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I completely understand. 🙂 it is scary to watch your walls cry brown tears.
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We moved into our 1986 built house around 12 years ago, and much like yours, the ceilings had “custom” coloured ceiling tiles. We bought the house from the original owners, and the only reason we didn’t recognise how the “customising” had been done is that both occupants has stopped smoking around a year before we bought the place. If we has detected a stale tobacco odour we probably would not have considered buying it.
We’ve found the only way to stop the stain eventually seeping through the paint is to scrub the ceiling with a sand soap solution, applying a sealing primer, followed by an undercoat, and only then applying two coats of your preferred top coat. We learnt that the hard way 😦
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Thanks, Barry. So far our paint is holding up. Hubby seems to know what he’s doing. I’ll just be glad when it’s finally all done.
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In our case it took between 6 months and a year for the stain to come through. I hope you have better luck.
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Ugh, I hope so, too.
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Good luck with the painting. Those stains can be hard to clean/cover.
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Tell me about it. For the bathroom, I used Fantastic, but I had to spray it on/wipe it off twice before we painted. So far, that paint’s held, and it’s been a year. Fingers crossed.
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My hubby does all the painting cos it’s too expensive to hire someone to do it. As always, I love your photography. Btw, are there any gold bars in that old safe? LOL!_へ__(‾◡◝ )>
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No gold or cash of any kind in that safe, just old legal documents that no one would be interested in other than the clients they belong to. Believe me, had I found any money, I would be hiring someone to do that painting.
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How awful! I’m surprised the seller wasn’t forced to paint all that before listing… yuck!
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It was an estate sale, The price was significantly below market to accommodate a quick sale. Buyers knew they were taking the house “as is.”
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Well, for that amount of smoke damage, I hope you got a really good deal!
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We did. I knew the market because at that time I was a real estate paralegal.
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My first house was so bad with nicotine I ended up scraping the walls down. They had stucco and nicotine on them. Then I ended up wallpapering. I ended up sanding all the wood work too and restaining it or painting it. What a job but I was much younger. Good luck.
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Thanks, Jane. So far, we seem to be doing ok with just the paint – and, of course, the bathroom was gutted and totally redone, which took care of the nicotine in there.
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This is what happens when people are too busy smoking to open a window or clean a single thing! Good mercy. My parents smoked, my grandparents smoked, and it was never like some of the places I’ve seen. I do believe Moo’s room was the smoking area for the previous resident. Painting her ceiling was done with one of those one-coat coverage, primer-included paints and it’s been over 5 years, all good. Here’s hoping your ceiling results are the same.
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Thank you, Joey. It’s good to know that someone was able to paint over that stuff and have it hold.
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I like your hubby’s painting work and your photos, CM. Great coverage with both!
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Thanks, Mark. Hubby has a bad neck from an accident many years ago, and that ceiling work was not easy for him, He did a great job, though.
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I think in 1939 everyone smoked so I can imagine! I do like those lake photos though, a nice place to write.
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Thanks, Jason. Good to see you over here – I thought maybe you had forgotten about me!
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Just been busy with work! Which means busy not blogging unfortunately.
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