Walls and Ceilings - What to do after you remove the popcorn?

Okay, so what do I do with the ceiling after I remove the popcorn from it? What is the difficulty rating for redoing the ceiling, for relatively inexperienced people? We have did other projects around the house and are willing to learn and try new things. Although we are not great at taping and bedding.

Thanks for your help,
Becki in Tx.

It would be best to skim coat the ceiling. You can then either prime and paint [leave the slick finish] or apply another texture. While skim coating might seem like a BIG job to the novice, there is no reason you can't break it up into several small jobs. Obviously the smoother you apply the joint compound the less sanding you will need to do but it isn't hard to fix mistakes by either sanding or adding more mud.

Or you can apply another heavy texture like a stomp texture. Basically you roll on thinned down j/c and take a brush to 'stomp' a design in the wet mud.