A Pivotal Weekend

About three seconds after we got the green light on the rough framing, I had the insulators and drywallers scheduled for installation. I am so ready to have walls– to move on to those fun projects like texturing, tiling, painting, furnishing– with the hopes that one day I won’t be living in a garage anymore.

The insulation was always going to be left to the professionals because we wanted expanding foam and I wanted not to suffocate myself in a housefull of infinitely multiplying suds, which was the likely outcome to that DIY scenario. It’s good to know your limits.

The drywall we were always a little up in the air on. I feel like I’m technically proficient at drywalling–I know how to get the boards up, the proper nailing pattern, how to tape and mud the seams– so professional help is more of a “want” than a “need.” But I also know that it took us from December 17th, 2009 to February 17, 2010 to drywall our 400 square foot garage apartment. So, we’d basically be looking at nine months of drywalling our 2000 square foot house. And then one of us would be looking at 9 years to life for murdering their significant other.

And we stared that happy scenario down for a while, wondering if it was worth the savings– dollars over sanity. And then the drywaller said, “It will take us three days.”

SOLD.

And since I could not wait any longer for those chalky white boards to go up (or to now have to work in a house where I can see my breath) I had a list of stuff to get done this weekend.

Like patching holes in the floor…

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And nailing in fifty-six pieces of “blocking” for cabinets…

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And running 350 feet of speaker wire…

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And installing five exterior light boxes, and three exterior outlet boxes, plus accompanying wiring.

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Since MysteryMan was dedicated to please–dear god–getting heat into the house, all of those miscellaneous items fell squrely on my shoulders. Which, let’s be honest, is just the way I like it.

And that took me Friday night, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. But even so, I am not the hero of this weekend. Because even with all of that work, we still wouldn’t have been ready for insulation or drywall if it wasn’t for the Chief Shopvac-er who spent friday night, Saturday, and Sunday freezing her butt off in our 30-degree house cleaning up all of our junk and shopvacing every last inch of the house.

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That’s my mom, folks. She’s like batman for cleaning — I put out the cry for help and she’s here.

Here’s one last look at our very clean and peacefull (if wall-less) house, before all hell breaks loose this week.

Great Room

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Kitchen (with blocking)

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Master Bedroom

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And those are the only rooms with working lights, so that’s all you get to see. Suffice it to say the master bath, full bath, and other bedrooms are all equally exciting.

It’s going to be an exciting week on the home-front!

8 Responses

  1. I think it’s probably a good idea to hire out the drywall. Anyone can do it, but it’s a real hassle if you don’t really know what you’re doing. The hallmark of a good drywaller is that they can really minimize the amount of sanding needed. When I do it, I put some mud on, and then I sand. And Sand. And Sand. And Sand. And Sand. all because I don’t really know what I’m doing. Professionals, we hope, don’t have to sand nearly as much to get a smooth finish.

  2. I read the sentence about drywalling taking 9 months & even before I read the next sentence I thought – they’ll kill each other, rofl! And your mom is just so Awesome.

    I know you are beyond anxious to get walls in there, but right now, with everything wide open & cleaned up, the place looks HUGE!

  3. Good job on hiring out the drywall. That job sucks hardcore. Even without walls your house looks AWESOME. I want to steal your bathroom fireplace from you.

  4. Congrats on getting to this point! The day the drywall went up in our house during our renovation I could have kissed our general contractor and I told him so. Best. Day. Ever.

  5. Swoon. I’m loving the great room! Good idea to hire the drywall out. I tried convincing my husband of this for our big reno next year but no luck…yet.

  6. I see the beer, lol!! Your mom rocks & I’m giddy with excitement to see the rest of this project!

    And, thanks for getting it up on facebook, but for some reason it doesn’t show up on my facebook page 🙁

  7. We’re hanging our first bits of drywall right now and even though we’ve been working in this direction for months and I’ve been dreaming about having walls and painting and (all that fun stuff) and we only have one weekend left before the family shows up for the holidays and they have to live in these rooms, I’m a little bit sad to see all my hard work covered up. There’s something so lovely about the warm color of the wood and all its 16-on center regularity. And I’m so proud of the electricity and the door jambs and window casings and all three million shims…I must be nuts but I wish I could leave it open a little while longer and just enjoy all the work I’ve done.

    Either that or maybe I’ve just realized that installing fiberglass batts is hell on earth and drywall is heavy and annoying.

  8. I would like to ask the exact height that the blocking for the kitchen cabinets should be placed.
    Thank you,
    Joe

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