Throwing in the towel.

We still haven't done any more work on the house, but there is at least an update. Tom's parents recently had some gutter work done on their house and asked the workers if they knew anybody that did drywall. As luck would have it, they themselves do drywall work. We had them come over today for an estimate of what it will take to finish the three rooms. We should find out soon what that will be. And better yet, they said if we approve their quote, they can get started almost immediately. It shouldn't take longer than a week for a couple of professionals to get in there and do it, so hopefully I'll soon have photos of primed walls!

So much going on, none of it at the house.

I apologize for being such a bad blogger recently. There has been a lot going on. Without getting too deeply into the sordid details, I quit my job on Thursday. It was a decision made in the heat of the moment, but I can honestly say I don't regret it, and that I'm confident I made the right choice. I haven't been able to work at the house either, though, so there's not much to show since my last report. Last weekend, Tom and I hung some more drywall in the bathroom, finishing the sink wall and mostly finishing another wall. That leaves us two walls and the shower and tub (half-)walls to hang.

Instead of looking for a new job right away, I plan on putting in some major hours at the house as soon as I'm able. Oh, and do you remember the horrible bubbling of Tom's mudding/taping job? It's totally disappeared. Smooth as a baby's behind. And some of the areas that I know I left perfectly smooth have bubbled a bit as they dried. ??? I certainly can't explain it. Maybe that husband of mine is handier than we know. I'm just glad I don't have to rip out nearly as much of it as I thought I would.

Massacre via mudding.

We spent a good portion of the day yesterday mudding drywall seams. I had done a bit during the week by myself and pretty well had the hang of it. I'm still not very fast with it, but I thought I've been doing a pretty decent job of it. It's a bit like frosting a cake.

I asked Tom if he'd ever frosted a cake before. He said he hadn't, but cited the Kroger bakery employees as evidence that he'd be able to figure it out. Now, I started with smaller sections of easier seams (taper-to-taper) in out-of-the way places until I got the feel for the process. Tom decided to start with a floor-to-ceiling butt-joint seam in a highly visible location for his first go at it. Not. Good. As a point of comparison, here's what my typical seam looks like:


And here's Tom's typical seam:

I forced myself to go outside and mow the lawn while he continued his massacre on the walls. I don't want to be unappreciative of the help I get, but I do want it to be done right. I guess I'll just have to go back and rip out the bubbled pieces and start again. Not to be a negative Nancy, here's an attempt at an overall shot of the room:

So progress has been made, slowly but surely. We're moving like a herd of turtles, as they say.

Sorry I've been MIA...

but I've had a lot going on this week, and there's not much to report on the house anyway. Yesterday I started filling in the drywall screw holes with drywall mud, and today we hung a whopping one sheet of drywall in the bathroom (the one I wanted to do last Monday). That'll teach us to go to karaoke the night before a supposed work day. My penance is a week full of mudding all by myself.

It's about time.

We finally got the ceiling drywall hung in the bathroom, so we can move on to the walls next. We would have started that last night, but it was getting too dark to work in there. However, if we get just one piece on the wall tonight, I can wire up one of the vanity lights, enabling us to work after dark on the rest of it.

Our productivity plans may be taking another hit next week. The bosses are going out of town on business and leaving Tom and me in charge of their house, animals, and child for almost a week. In theory, I'll have between 8 am and 2 pm to work at the house while the kid is at school, but it's a well-documented fact that I don't really wake up before 10 am. I'm not sure if trying to finish drywall while in a coma is a good idea. I guess we'll see.

Painting

As I mentioned before, Tom and I painted last night at the gym where he plays table tennis. It was nice to get to start and finish a project all in the same day. That hasn't happened to us recently, if ever. It was pretty tough painting on the brick, and we were worried we wouldn't have enough paint, but we managed. It needs a second coat, but it looks alright if you stand back a bit. I take no responsibility for the Smurfy color. Here are Tom and Carl hard at work:


My job was to come back with a brush and touch up the bottom part where they couldn't get with a roller. I had to wait for them to finish this section and move the drop cloth, so I had a minute or two to get a few quick photos. And here's the wall after we were done:


The opposite wall before:


And after:


The paint color isn't really my taste, but it will serve its purpose - to give a greater contrast between the ping pong ball and the wall. And despite the color, the fresh coat of paint makes it look much better, and since we only painted 5' up the wall, it's not totally overwhelming. Maybe someday we'll get around to painting in our house...sigh.

Not much to report.

So my optimistic September 15 move-in goal is clearly not happening. In fact, things don't really look a whole lot different than when I stated that goal to begin with. We'll be attempting to fix that this weekend. We've recruited help from work and hope to get the bathroom ceiling drywall/greenboard done. Tip for getting coworkers to help: ask early in the week before they've made weekend plans. Haha.

Unfortunately, the evenings this week will be dedicated to painting the gym where Tom plays table tennis. Tonight is the prep work: patching a couple of places where there's water seepage, scrubbing it down with a metal-bristle brush, and taping it off. Thursday is supposed to be painting day. Tom wants to host a tournament there in October, and the walls need to be a different color to contrast with the ping pong balls.

So, not much to report this week, even though I'll probably still try to sneak in some work at the house.