First times for everything

Holy schnikes that was a shit-ton of work. So close to being done though. So close.

Quick shot of a first coat. So many damn corners.

I didn’t follow my own advice on not going cheap on tools but I don’t think it hurt the final product. Or rather, I don’t think getting better tools would have made things much better. 

More first coat, more corners.

Walmart had a finishing kit with a mud trough, 10-inch blade, and a 6-inch blade all for $10, which made me feel better about getting a corner tool and fancier corner beads with paper from HD. I never thought I would be shopping at Walmart so regularly, but these things happen in the burbs I guess. Considering just a trough would have cost more at HD I feel like this was a win (well, a win in that anything involving a purchase at a store you’ve been increasingly dubious about due to statements/political affiliations of leadership…basically I feel like I can’t shop anywhere these days). 

Second coat done, looking alright.

Anyway, it’s a poor craftsman that blames his tools and I don’t think the quality of what I bought would have made much of a difference in the final product. The paper-covered corners seemed easier than normal tin corners at least. It’s not a perfect job, but I think it looks pretty good and it’s nearly ready for some primer. Things went surprisingly quickly too; taping everything made the initial coat go a little slower, but once that was dry the second coat basically took a day, and I’ve been getting third coats done in the evening so far. I keep seeing little things I need to fix too, but since we’re on a dead-line at some point I just have to accept it’s not going to be perfect and move on.

More second coat. Yes, I think that will do, minus the bit at the ceiling.

This is where my motivation starts to dip. So far, everything on this project has been a first. I’ve never hung drywall, never taped or mudded it. It was fun to try something new, especially with it seemingly going well and quickly. I’ve painted before, so I’m not really looking forward to the steps remaining. Add to that the sheer enormity of options available to finish a project with and I start to wish I was just done already. Pick a paint color, a trim, might as well pick a grain of sand from the beach. So many out there.

Well, maybe not so many. I’m hoping to use trim to hide the joints at the floor and ceiling, so that means pretty large pieces for the most part. I want to go simple and affordable, so that narrows it down more. There are some foam options that sound pretty good, we’ll see what we end up with.

Who knows, maybe using a bucket grid will be enough of a difference that priming goes okay. I might say I’m not looking forward to painting but I find myself antsy to get started as I sit here writing this. With so much work behind me on this why not get excited about starting a next step, even if it is something that I’m not always fond of.

Ice emergency, I hadn't refilled my big cubes!

This is usually when I say something about “let’s get to work” to try and stay motivated, but instead I’m going to say “let’s have a drink and savor reaching this point of the project” b/c that’s sure as shit what I did. I mixed a few mojitos with mint we’re growing on the deck, and when the rum was gone I moved on to old fashions with the fantastic rye the wife got me for my birthday. Throw in a wedge one of the oranges we constantly have on-hand and viola, cocktail time. Nice.