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What kind of drywall do I use here?…There are many kinds of drywall, all with specific uses. I am going to list a few popular kinds of drywall and backer board, and describe how they are used. Drywall comes in thicknesses from 1/4″ to 3 [Read More] 

A report posted on the National Association of Home Builders website is noting that a preliminary multi agency investigation is inclusive. That posting is here.
Early Findings Inconclusive on Chinese Drywall Hazards
The original government reports [Read More] 

Yesterday was quite the day. I mean, in addition to Gene coming over and helping us from morning until after dark as we threw drywall liberally about the dining room, I also managed to knock over and break my laptop which has served me faithfully t [Read More] 

Something has finally gone wrong. I cannot for the life of me get in touch with the drywaller. I talked to him on Tuesday, and he promised me a callback the following morning with a quote to add insulation to our existing drywall quote. No call, s [Read More] 

(I'm way behind. A lot of blog-worthy stuff has happened since the last post, and I'm going to catch up with a series of incremental updates instead of mashing everything into one huge post.)I finished mudding and sanding the walls last week. This in [Read More] 

We're going to be doing a bit more demolition, taking down the ratty ceiling in the dining room and putting up gyp board (all you plaster sentimentalists can die under your own collapsing ceilings when The Big One hits, thanks). Since so many peopl [Read More] 

My previous posting showed skim coating prep for inside corners. If you have outside corners they need to be fixed also. Here is the soffit over the vanities at the Lightyear Sunken Bath Project. We are cornerbeading it to create a smooth job. Corne [Read More] 

I ran across a story today about a new health threat from a strange source: drywall.
My first thought was, "you've got to be kidding!" My understanding from watching the How They Make Stuff TV shows was that drywall was about as inert a product as [Read More] 

Even though it rained a lot today, DH was able to get a lot done around the house.The pool pump has worked wonderfully to remove the 2-3 feet of water from the pool cover and even ran all night without being plugged in. I didn't realize that the pump [Read More] 

I keep forgetting to post about the wonderful ceiling-demolition gifts we received. I didn't even know a demolition was a gift giving event (apparently I don't spend enough time in Hallmark stores: "On this momentous occasion... we wish you much ha [Read More] 

Before we had everybody tear our ceiling down yesterday, Noel turned off the electricity to the overhead lights. We removed them and piled them lovingly in the laundry room. Then we worked all day. Then the sun set. And wow, was it dark in the h [Read More] 

Some highlights from our long day of work today. For those house bloggers considering having a work party: do it. The usual situation would be getting about a quarter of this work done and spending a month nursing achy joints. Instead we got most [Read More] 

The very last thing I wanted to do today was any more sanding. So the very last sanding job in the front parlour was, to put it nicely, half-assed. And of course the first coat of primer over raw drywall is always hardest to put on, and it uses mo [Read More] 

Savvy readers will realize that we're finishing up the front parlour just barely in time to destroy our dining room and hallway at our Demolition Party this coming Saturday (you can still RSVP!). Indeed, the original date for the party was this Sat [Read More] 

An arm-numbing day in the front parlour, and we have a second coat of mud on the walls. For the second coat, I like to thin down the all-purpose mud by a bit to improve working time and the smoothness. We ended up having to buy a second bucket of [Read More] 

Here's about two hours of my life:
Before:
After:
For reasons unknown to me, working in the bay always seems to take longer and be more exhausting than the entire rest of the room. And I was pretty tired after all the work I did yesterday.
Tw [Read More] 

I spent much of the afternoon today mudding the front parlour. I coerced Noel into helping me out, mostly by waiting around at the bottom of the ladder and handing me tools and so forth. He also took some photos, so you get rare shots of me in act [Read More] 

I spent much of my house-work time yesterday ripping down the wrinkled drywall tape. It's startlingly easy to do: just grab hold of an end and tug, and the tape pulls free, crumbling the dried mud off.
Where the tape wrinkled, I removed it so that [Read More] 

We finished today lightly coated in white dust. Not because we were on a crazed drug binge, but because we were putting up the drywall in the front parlour.
In case we haven't mentioned it enough, drywalling sucks. And we haven't even gotten to t [Read More] 

From Retaining wall, FireplaceWork has begun on the rock facing for the front porch. The masons are doing a "dry stack" look, but the rock is, indeed, mortared, and we're very pleased with the results. Dave, the mason, is an artist! The yellow she [Read More] 