Buh-bye textured walls

Remember how two of the walls in our master bedroom used to look like this?

After a whole lot of sanding (I used my trusty Black & Decker mouse sander and lots of 80 grit sandpaper), a skim coat and primer, they now look like this:

I swear this is a real picture - detail on a white wall is hard to capture!

The sanding was the hardest and most time-consuming part of the process (I worked for a couple of hours at a time over several evenings). For the skim coat, I used DAP plaster of paris - which I found surprisingly easy to work with. It does harden really quickly, so mixing small quantities at a time was a must (the thicker it gets, the harder it is to spread evenly). I followed Linds' from Little Orphan Aggie's advice and waited until the walls were primed to look for imperfections. The good news is that I only have a handful of small spots to touch up (I'm adding 'plasterer' to my list of careers that could've been, right after 'accountant'). The walls definitely aren't perfect (my camera just makes them look that way), but they blend nicely with the two walls that weren't textured (which aren't perfect either) and keep our house's character.

Although I can't wait to paint, I have to take a break from the bedroom to work on the basement for a bit. We're taking advantage of some energy-efficiency rebates and insulating our basement and crawl space with spray foam, but we have a little demo to do before the company we've hired can do its thing. But demo's supposed to be fun, right?