drywall

Drywall goes up in the basement this week. After several months of fairly incremental change, having the walls covered in sheetrock is decidedly dramatic. Here's a peek:



That funny contraption is used for getting sheets of drywall onto the ceiling. He lays it flat on the machine and cranks it right up there. I've never seen anything like it.

Watching this guy do his work is really something. LJ works alone, swiftly and gracefully. It's almost like a dance, the way he can lift a piece of sheetrock, balance it, and punch in more than a dozen screws with his power drill, all in a minute or two.

It will take him the rest of the week to finish putting all the little pieces in, and then he's got to wrap all the corners and put up mud and tape, then texture everything. After that, we paint, and that will be a BIG job. We won't be able to get to that until after the weekend. Stuart is impatient, but I am relieved. I wasn't looking forward to spending Mothers' Day painting a basement ceiling, but I was prepared to do it if I had to. Now it looks like I'll be able to spent the weekend working outside, which is what I really wanted to do in the first place.

Today was chilly (40s) and gloomy. This made me grumpy, I'll admit. I did take the kids to a certain large home improvement store to purchase a new bird feeder (as per Daniel's request) that we really hope is squirrel-proof, but I'm not holding my breath. Those little varmints can bust into ANY bird feeder, as far as I can tell. I also bought a cedar kit for making a raised garden bed. I hope to put it somewhere here:



I'm so apprehensive about this gardening project for some reason. I think I just need more confidence.

Comments

Jessi said…
We used to have this bird seed that had capsacin (sp?) on it. It didn't bother the birds, but the squirrels hated it. I always made sure the birdbath was full so they could get a drink, but honestly, they only did it once. I can't find that stuff anymore and I don't know if it turned out to be cruel and I was torturing squirrels or if it just didn't catch on. There is your totally only mildly related comment of the day.
I saw some raised garden beds made out of recycled plastic "logs" at a certain membership club that I'm dying to get my hands on... Maybe next spring.

BTW- since you aren't on FB yet I'll share my news with you here. Tomorrow I start the first round of interviews for a paid internship next school year at one of the school districts here. Squee!
Animal said…
I've used a drywall lift a bunch in the past…MUCH easier than the "handyman-book-special" of building a "T" out of 2x4's, then using your shoulder to get it up on that, then pushing it up to the ceiling…ugh. *crank-crank-crank, drill-drill-drill* and DONE!

Looks FANTASTIC down there!
Anonymous said…
Those contraptions are nice, but not cheap; but he works alone and does it for a living. What also works are two people working together. Mom helped me do sheetrock in my office and the shop, including the ceiling. Get it in place, put in a couple nails which would just barely hold it, then finish it off with screws. It worked fine since there were only two rooms, each not large, and the ceiling was only seven feet.

Your uncles have two low benches or foot stools, the heights being precise. Standing on the bench will put the sheet rock just at the ceiling, then it will be pressed against the ceiling joist when they stand on their tippy toes. I think that works for the standard eight foot ceiling.

Textured? I guess that means you won't be painting the ceiling, which is that much less to paint.

It does look nice. I wonder when Mom and I will be able to see it?

Dad

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