And now for the messy part?

I should have added “repeatedly sweep and mop to try and control the drywall dust situation” to my earlier steps left to finish. Now the messy part starts? I might be in trouble here. Starting to doubt the wisdom of documenting this project a step at a time, since it’s starting to feel like more steps keep showing up.

It's not all pretty but it's up there.

But all the walls are paneled and that seems like an important part to have done. And thank you to HD, for offering delivery service to the tune of $59 to get the rest of the drywall I needed dropped off, along with a huge bucket of primer, instead of my renting another van and hauling a literal ton of materials on my own. So much easier, even with the panels piled in the garage and my moving each one in as I needed it. I even had enough to re-do the first panel I put up since the more I looked at it the less happy I was with how it lined up with the other panels. Finishing with a do-over of the first panel seemed like a poetic and easy way to finish this phase.  

Holy cow I like it so much better that that.

Which was good b/c at this point I’ve had enough surprises and needed something to go easy. After dealing with surprise sealant and insulation issues, I expected getting all the drywall up might feel like a good time to take a deep breath and exhale. But with a huge bucket of joint compound just sitting there I found myself itching to move on to the next step, hence some of the screws already having compound. I have to make a pass at some of them to get them dimpled into the paper more, but fuck that, let’s put some corners on.   

I’m starting to feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel on this project, although that’s probably deceptive. I will admit to my confidence taking a hit as some of these surprises popped up. Working on this a few hours at a time meant the demo and paneling was slow going, and the mudding and painting isn’t going to be any less time intensive. I’m still optimistic though, mostly b/c I’m a fool but also b/c I’m a halfway decent painter and there’s probably some skill overlap there. I better stop complaining and just get busy already.   

Purchase list so far for the entire thing:

30 panels mold-resistant 4x8 drywall panels (although I only ended up using 26)
3 bulk rolls fiberglass insulation
3 boards firm insulation w/glue & tape
4.5 gallons pre-mixed lightweight joint compound
5 10 ft paper-covered metal outside corner beads
tape (1 500 ft roll will be enough, right? I’m too tired to math)
4.5 gallons drywall primer
various finishing tools
Bagster plus pick-up fee

So many purchases