My BIL (Bill) is an award winning set designer/painter/magician who saves our butts on our DIY projects all the time. He is here now working on our bathroom so I asked him... Apparently we didn't have the *real* popcorn ceilings. It sure looked like it to me... Every time I'd try to clean the ceilings of spider webs, my cloth would stick to it. It would just hang from the ceiling !! Bill says we just had a very heavy texture that looked like popcorn. He said for real popcorn ceilings, he steams it before using his putty knife. He says it comes off pretty easy when it gets damp. Our ceilings are tall (old house) and he just put a skim coat of mud on top of the heavy texture. It is 100% better. He's a magician. I still think we had popcorn ceilings and I just don't think he remembers... It has been almost 5 years ago.

I found really poor drywall work. My house was built in 1981. Spent forever fixing the drywall under it - pretty much attempting to redo all the seams. Most rooms I was able to make it look good. A couple rooms there were sections of ceiling that were uneven and exposed tape - I was not able to make those look good, acceptable, but not good. I hope it goes better for you than me... it came off easy enough after making it all wet but that was only the beginning. However I am sure glad to have it gone (other than above the stairs and a few other places that were hard to get to or not worth the trouble like insides of closets)

We had popcorn ceilings removed from our 1500 square foot house in 1991 when we bought it and before we moved in. It was a very messy job, but it was done right. We have smooth ceilings and, with the exception just a few inconspicuous areas, no patching had to be done. If your popcorn removal left a smooth celing that's got a lot of cracks and bumps, you will need to patch it up. It can be done DIY, but it's very hard a tedious. The alternative is to hire a professional plasterer, which can be expensive. A less expensive alternative is to hire a handyman who can do a reasonably good job of it, it you're lucky enough to find such a person. One consideration is how visible are the imperfections. That depends to some extent on the shininess of the paint. Flat paint will show imperfections a lot less than shiny paint. But for a bathroom, you'll probably want semi-gloss.

Thank you for your replies. I found a drywall guy that’s going to work with me to keep the costs down. I’m going to scrape all the popcorn off, and I’m going to help him install it (that way I get to learn as I go too) and then he will tape it, put some mud on it, and sand it. Then I’ll paint it. ...and yes I definitely agree with your ‘do it once and do it right‘ comment. It’s a small home and one room has already been done so it shouldn’t be too tough. thanks again