Drywalling the Den - Day 3 and 4

Once we carted out the old paneling we started with the stack of drywall and surveyed where it was going on the walls.

We had to deal with a couple of tricky items:  the interior wall adjacent to the laundry room had an I-beam across the top with short vertical blocks just sitting in place; and the sidewalls next to the neighbors were cinderblock with a 1"x3" grid where the drywall had to be attached.

Pam put up some small green painters tape to mark the studs and vertical grid so we knew where to put the drywall screws.

Days 3, and 4 were primarily focused on getting the drywall up so we could tape and mud the joints.  Progress seemed to go pretty quickly when we put up 4' x 8' sheets.  And while I was working on one side of the room, others started the taping and mudding.

It was slow going for about 1/2 of the sheets because I had to measure cut outs electrical circuits, switches and the unique areas.

Adam jumped in on a gnarly area between the door and brick chimney, while Pam and Melissa were working on other areas.

Also on Saturday and Sunday we were in the kitchen and they decided they wanted to get rid of the metal phone box that was in the middle of their kitchen wall.  It came out easy enough, but then it left a big hole in the all.

We decided to enlarge it so it went from stud to stud and then cut it out evenly so a piece of drywall would fit in nicely.

We also searched out the floor joists so we could hang their pots and pans rack.

This is the in-progress photos of the mudding and the primer and paint I got.

They picked out a chalk paint for the wall.

And it turned out well.

At the end of every day, we moved the furniture back into the room and hooked up the TV.

We had hoped to finish up by Monday or Tuesday, but the more we saw our progress, we knew a finish time toward the middle or end of the week was more realistic.  It took a long time for the mud to dry, then we had to sand and smooth it and reapply more mud where necessary.

Next time, the last few days and the finished product...

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!