Mud Pies

It has been raining here. My garden loves it but I am loving it more because I have a great excuse to not scrape the paint outside and refinish the basement instead.

I love drywalling. LOVE it. Seeing something go from ugly to finished is amazing. I'm working on the corner where my craft stuff is. I figure if I do a little bit of the basement at a time, it will be finished in no time. Here's my schedule this week:

Sunday afternoon: Taped the joints and put the first coat of mud on. I even cut a piece of drywall to fit and reinforced some loose areas with drywall screws before I started the mud. Very exciting. It took around 3 hours. Drink of choice while I worked: root beer

Monday after work: Applied the 2nd coat of mud in about an hour. Used the remaining mud in my pan to cover some screw holes elsewhere in the basement. I also taped another seam since I had a bunch of mud leftover. (I don't like to put used mud back into the bucket -- hard/dry chunks can ruin a nice 3rd coat finish.) I also tried a new trick that my friend Beti taught me -- instead of sanding, use a damp sponge to smooth the mud as it dries. So I sponged the mud after I finished. That took about 40 minutes and was much easier than sanding. Drink of choice while I worked: sake

Tuesday after work: Applied the 3rd and final coat of mud. The wet sponge trick really made a difference. I sponged again after the 3rd coat. Everything took about 90 minutes. It looks beautiful and ready for primer. I'll give it a quick sand in areas that need it, but the wet sponge trick made a huge difference in the amount of time it takes (and thus improves my morale 10-fold). Drink of choice while I worked: Old Fashioned with homemade bitters

Wednesday morning before work: wow, I really love drywall because before I came to work this morning, I was patching some missed areas and smoothing things out. It will be ready to prime when I get home. Drink of choice while I worked: nothing.

Wednesday after work: I plan to take a picture of the progress and then paint the first coat of primer. I can hardly wait. Drink of choice while I work: TBD

I found this picture of the area I'm finishing from before we moved into the house. Everything purple is unfinished, painted drywall. I'm excited for that purple to go. You can also *kind of* see into the gear room.