mudding and taping and priming and painting.

Ahh, the joys of mudding and taping sheetrock. It was a rough start. Been a while since I started (but, umm, have yet to finish) mudding the laundry room in the back of the house so I was a little rusty. And I thought I knew better so I didn’t bother re-reading the instructions I found online and printed years ago before I mudded and taped the kitchen. So I wetted the tape, stuck it to the wall and scraped some mud onto it. Then wondered why the tape wasn't sticking. Uhh, mud goes first ...

After a rough start and getting back into the hang of it, I started to rock and roll.

Two coats of the regular mud making sure to scrape off enough of it to never have to sand it. Then put on the final topping coat. I was vigilant. Every day on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend was spent putting on a coat - Thanksgiving was the taping fiasco, Friday the first coat (I’m not good enough to combine the taping and applying the first coat in one step - plus I don’t have one of those nifty taping hoppers despite seeing one at a yard sale a few years back but passing it up), Saturday the second and Sunday the light topping coat. Always (always) use a topping coat! As I applied it then took my 10” knife scraping against the sheetrock I smiled - that last coat was beautiful. I had gotten my groove back. Then I sanded it Monday evening. I was afterall in a race to finish painting the room by the coming Thursday when my piano - in whose spot I was sleeping for the time being while my room was covered with a tarp and a complete disaster - was being delivered. So Tuesday night then was spent priming the drywall up til past 1 in the morning.

And then - finally - the big day: Wednesday. Paint = color. Yea!

I was up til 2:30 first painting the ceiling then putting the color on the walls. For all the ceilings I’ve been using Benjamin Moore HC-170 stonington grey (all ceilings are the same color for consistency) and for the walls - years ago I picked out Benjamin Moore HC-98 providence olive and - despite trying out a couple other options - ultimately sticking with the original plan figuring I was onto something way back then when I first chose that color. I had Lowe’s mix it up balanced to daylight like I did for the fairview taupe in the living room.

As I put it on I smiled - I really really liked it (I use Olympic paints - it’s about half the cost of BM interior paint - flat for the walls mixed to match my particular Benjamin Moore palette and semi-gloss brilliant white for the trim).

I finished the first wall ...

then quickly the rest of the room -

I was actually enjoying the mudding - kind of surprising actually. It's satisfying to do this kind of work yourself and be able to stand back and admire a job well done.

And so now what’s left is to paint (it’s already primed), cut and hang all the trim. Yeah - ‘all that’s left’ ... I have to trim out both windows and the three doors, put in all new baseboards (I ripped out the remaining - which turned out to be a combination of pieces of plywood and particle board) and then ... I think this will be the first room in which I hang my crown + casing + bead molding along the ceiling (which is saved me a bit of time - though I’m sure that won’t be an easy task - since I didn’t have to put three coats of mud all along the ceiling corners or worry about cutting in along the whole ceiling either). So tomorrow morning I go to Home Depot to get the trim and spend the weekend painting, cutting and hanging. My stapler and 6-gallon compressor will come in really handy again. But then it’ll be just about finished - still have to decide carpet or no carpet ...

(ps - I have photos of my room before I did anything after first moving in and there was white wallpaper and a drop ceiling - to after I had ripped out the ceiling and it was piled in rubble on the floor about six inches thick to no walls to now and eventually when all the trim is hung and it's finished - I'm waiting to dig up those old before shots for that last post ... )