Testing Out A Texture Technique

We hate finishing drywall. We hate obsessing over every little crack, undulation, bump, blemish, hole - whatever. We especially hate it on ceilings, where you tire your arms out and get dust and joint compound in your eyes.

So, we started looking for ways to avoid finishing these things so perfectly. Like people wear cosmetics, we discovered that you can hide imperfections in your house with color and texture.

We had thought of getting textured wall paper for the ceiling, but the paper we liked was going to set us back $500+. Then Jenn started reading about some other ideas and came across a technique where you use rumpled tissue paper and paint over it. Here we are testing it:

Humidity Sucks

It prevents drywall joint compound from drying. That and the Memorial Day holiday prevented me from accomplishing much of late.

Here you can see I started mudding and taping. This picture was taken Sunday, 5/22. The week after that I started painting and framing out the cupboard to go above our bed.

These last few days the humidity dropped a bit, so the sanding can continue. Yay.

Back To the Bedroom

I've been working my day job a lot lately, racing to finish a project with my colleagues. Weekends have been spent doing things like Mothers' Day, planting, killing zombies. When at last I had the house to myself and a day and half of vacation, I got back to work.

Here I am about to put sheet rock into place on the closet.

I have the piece in place, now let's cut it.
Notice the dark spots on the wall where the head of our bed used to be. With the room unfinished for over three and a half years, our hair left grease stains against the wall. I decided that instead of fighting that stain with KILLZ or some other primer, I would just lay another sheet of rock over it. It also helps deaden the sound a little. My son's room is behind that wall, and it would be nice to hear a little less from his room.
Finishing more of the closet.
And yet more of the closet - the right-hand jamb of the door is in place.
Now it is time to hide the chimney, pretty as it looks.
I glued and nailed two 2x4s against the protruding corner. This is where I stopped for the night.
Up bright and early the next day, I got some insulation and other stuff at Home Depot. Why do I insulate my interior walls? To deaden sound. Doubling sheetrock does that, too.
To make that wall as smooth as I could, I laid a whole piece of sheetrock over the old and new space.
I took a few minutes to patch up the screws.
Now I have a piece glued in over the other face of the chimney - at last it is gone from view.
Here is where I stopped Friday afternoon.
And this is as far as I got by Sunday afternoon. A lot more mud and tape are in place, as well as some primer on the wall behind the head of our bed.
I thought we would have to move back in as the weekend is over, but Jenn and I are sleeping downstairs on the couch for a while. I will try to get more done during the next week, at night. The drywall compound is taking forever to dry in this unusually wet spring here in the northeast.

More shit no one cares about.

Biko sits as construction goes on around him.

The lower rail of the cupboard is in place. We're seeing how we like the height.

Jennifer back to mudding and taping, her favorite job.

We're Back!

We're finally working on our own bedroom. Here's what it has looked like for the last three and a half years:

The last picture shows where I have started to place my closet.

We're Back/The Things You Can Find On the Internet If You Just Look

Chris has lamented (bitched, whined, complained, protested) our absence so, here we are.

Every wonder if mixing up all those switch types (toggle versus decora) is a bad idea because you can't find a switchplate for the mess? Well, so did I until I found these guys and I found my specific plate here.

Now Cara doesn't have to fear electrocution.

Welcome To My Latest Nightmare

Open up the walls in an old house that has been hacked at over the years and you find bad stuff. This addition (about 8'x6') to the back of my house is one such example. I am asking my brother Pat for help in shoring up some of the problems here.










In the mean time, I furred out the walls, plugged up sundry holes, insulated and covered the walls with cheap waferboard. Next year we'll open it all again and fix it, then tear out the rest of the kitchen and fix that, too. How long have I been saying that?