Paco, the Messycan

The drywall contractor who did the original work on our house didn't like our builder. Likewise, our builder didn't like the drywall contractor. Consequently, when we told the builder that some of the drywall tape was coming loose where the roof trusses create a seam along the top of the stem wall, he couldn't get ahold of the original drywall guy to come fix it. After several weeks of waiting, Paco, a different drywall contractor, showed up yesterday to fix it. I'm glad I was home to clean up after Paco. He said, "Dees may be a leetle messy", and it was.
First, he brought in his step ladder. The ladder had so much dried paint and plaster on it that chunks were falling off with each movement. The same went for his pants and his shoes.
Next, as he tore off all the old tape, dry paint and drywall mud came with it. Flakes of paint and plaster were dropping all over the place. I followed along behind him with the vacuum and cleaned up as much as I could.
Then he unrolled long strips of seam material and cut them to length.
Next, he mixed up a batch of mud (on the front porch, thankfully) and spread a layer on both sides of the seam. As he spread on the mud, he set the long strips of seam material on top of it.
Once that was finished, he started over again, spreading a layer of mud over the seam material and feathering the edges.
He waited about 20 minutes after that step before spraying on texture from aerosol cans. I am still finding tiny little drops of texture material on the floor and furniture.
This morning, I took our year-old cans of left over interior paint to the hardware store and had them shake them up for me. I came back home and painted over the ceiling half of the new surface. That was fairly easy. It was white on white and it didn't matter if I slopped a little over onto the wall. I realized however that my 5 foot step ladder will not work for the rest of the project as the wall portion will require much more careful painting since it's a different color.
So, that's where I am right now. I'm researching the cost of a 10' step ladder while the ceiling paint dries. Lowe's and Home Depot both have some for $160-$200. Oh well. We needed to get a 10-footer sooner or later anyway since that's the only way to reach the smoke detectors mounted near the peak of the 14-foot ceiling. Sheesh. It's always something.