Sorry about the lack of updates lately! We had planned on Shelly writing an update last week about some of her design choices but it never happened. When I asked her about it, she said: “And when am I supposed to do that?” She has a point. We’ve been working ourselves a bit hard lately and I’ll take the blame for that. Everyone reacts differently to challenges and stress, but my instinct is always to double down.
While growing up in the small town of Highland, Utah I had the privilege of working on a small farm. My Dad had long since given up full-time farming as his profession, but I think he kept just enough equipment and land to keep us busy and teach us how to work.
For example, I grew up milking cows each morning and night, waking up every 3 hours over the summer nights to move the water dams and irrigate our fields, spent long summer days on the tractor mowing/raking/baling hay, and raising and selling corn on the street corner to raise money for school.
One hot summer day I drove our tractor over to the field to begin a long day of baling the previously cut alfalfa. I was probably 12 years old and had to drive the tractor over one busy street and a mile or two to the other side of town to where our field was. Upon arriving I started down the row only to have the baler jam! The wire got all tangled up inside the baler and my half-hearted attempt to un-jam it was fruitless. So with a skip in my step, I walked home, thinking I had fortuitously just bought myself a day off work on a beautiful summer day.
As I walked into my house my Mom’s eyebrows raised and she asked: “What are you doing home so early”? I explained my situation and added: “I guess I’ll have to wait until Dad gets home from work tonight to see if we can fix it.” Without hesitating she said: “You should call your Dad right now and give him an update.”
I mustered courage and fingered the dialer on our old rotary phone. My Dad’s response was as short as my work that morning: “Walk back over to the field. I’ll meet you there in 15 mins”. Click.
My head hung low as I returned to the field with the thought my Dad was leaving his work to come bail me out of a stuck baler. It didn’t help things when he showed up, gave the wire a quick yank with his pliers and got me unstuck in 30 seconds, smiling as he let me know I could now “get back to work”.
I guess those lessons on the farm stuck with me, here I am 30 years later not only remembering them but reliving them in new forms. Sometimes on the Dad side of the story. One thing is for sure: I learned to enjoy working hard on the farm. Oh wait, you wanted to hear about our house…
Ok so last we shared, the electrician and plumber had done their work and we were excited to start moving on to walls. We’ve never hung sheetrock or as it seems to be called here - drywall - but we’ve heard all the stories. I was especially optimistic as I read the start of this article on familyhandman.com:
“Be bold! You don't need a truckload of tools, the mind of a rocket scientist or an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like physique to hang drywall. You just need to get familiar with the fundamentals to gain the confidence to tackle the job yourself.”
With added confidence I continued reading and grew more determined after the next paragraph:
“Drywall is one of the easiest-to-use and cheapest construction materials in the world. Even a serious mistake will make you chuckle, knowing you've wasted little time and probably less than five bucks. And the money you save handling the task yourself will come in handy for furnishing that new room.”
This might even be fun, I deluded myself, as we headed to the house Monday morning. A few sheets of drywall and a box full of screws awaited us and in fact, they went in pretty quick. We chose the easiest wall: filling in the wall where the new office doors will sit. We felt pretty good with ourselves when Todd, our construction mentor, came by and inspected our work and said: “This looks pretty good… I only see a few screws that aren’t seated correctly. Most first time dry wallers either drive the screws too far breaking the paper or not far enough”. With his seal of approval we moved to the kitchen and living area. Here is an example of a few sheets we put up in the new kitchen:
Hanging drywall on walls really isn’t that bad.. for some reason my estimating skills were challenged as we ended up heading back to the hardware store not once, twice or three times, but more as the drywall monster continued to ask for more and more to fill the walls, patches and ultimately ceilings that needed coverage. I lost count but I think we ended up installing 14 sheets in total. And hundreds of screws.
Hanging drywall on ceilings is another beast all together. My Dad had tipped me off to rent a dry wall lift at the hardware store to make things easier, so I did as he suggested. Those guys must have a lot of pity for people installing dry wall because it must be one of the least expensive big tools you can rent - $35 will get you a nice lift for the whole day. We had only 3 1/2 sheets to install, so I thought we may only need the 4 hour / $25 service plan. Boy was I wrong.
We started hanging the first sheet at 8am that morning and by the time we were finished with it we had to take a lunch break. It was lunch time, but that wasn’t the only reason we had to take a break, if you know what I mean. The afternoon turned into evening and my instincts of doubling down to finish the third sheet or die kicked in and we worked late into the evening before returning the lift just before close.
What is so hard about installing drywall on a ceiling? Ok, let me give you a taste. Pick up something next to you…doesn’t have to be anything heavy 5 lbs will do. Now grip it tight like you would a screw driver and raise it above your head and continue reading….don’t let it down until I tell you.
You’ll soon find there is more than one reason kids don’t like to raise their hands in class. Hands don’t belong above heads. Gravity wins out over blood. Every time. After just a few minutes the muscles in your forearm from grasping your object start to tire, and it doesn’t help that your heart is struggling to pump blood against gravity to feed them with oxygen and nutrients. Then, your shoulder and upper back will start to ache as most of us don’t use these muscles very often. Now imagine doing this… for TWELVE HOURS.
And to add insult to your pain, after hours of doing this, imagine that each time you misjudge where the supporting member (2x4 stud/beam) behind the drywall is and you drive the screw into nothing, you have to stop, remove the screw, and start again, realizing that you just wasted 45 seconds of precious hand-above-head time.
The next day we came back, looked at our own work and knew that we couldn’t leave it as-is. There was one section of drywall that butted up against our new sheet which had been water damaged with that leak in the back office and was sagging. When we tried to put screws through it, it would just shatter and the screw wouldn’t hold. So we made yet another trip to the hardware store to buy more drywall (or yes, the kind you put on the ceiling is thicker and heavier than the kind you put on walls!) and proceeded to cut out another 2’x6’ section and replace it.
After all the “fun” of installing drywall comes the fun of “mudding” and “taping” it. In desperation we asked Todd if he knew anyone who we could hire to come help us, but he said he was already having problems staffing his other projects with dry wallers and wouldn’t be able to help. So while I worked on finishing up some of our electrical changes, Shelly got to go over every inch of dry wall seam with mud and tape. Ethan also helped out covering the screws.
Is your arm tired yet?
We were getting excited that the drywall was coming to an end when…I realized… the french door near the kitchen which we recently decided to replace with a single door is going to mean…you guessed it….more dry wall! And the window that we ordered to make room for more cabinets means… you guessed more dry wall! So while Shelly kept slaving away on mud and tape this week, Ethan and I tried to get ahead of her by removing the old window and installing the new one as well as prepping the other wall for the new door.
We tackled the window project and were able to remove the old window, frame in the new one, and install it and dry wall over the new wall area in just one day! I was proud to stand back and admire our work.
The door project was a bit more difficult, as with the previous one, we found more water damaged wood that needed to be replaced.
Thankfully my sister Marne’ and good friend Leanne visited us yesterday, the day we took it on. They took us out to lunch and said: “We brought a change of clothes, is there anything we can do to help?” We gratefully took them up on their offer and Marne’ and Ethan helped me rebuild the wall and subfloor. Marne' was a huge help cleaning out rotting wood, cutting sheets of sheathing and 2x4s, screwing them together... I wish we could work together every day!
Meanwhile, Leanne and Shelly took a break from mudding to install some window trim and “shiplap”. They seemed to have a lot more fun than we were having with the rotted wood, probably because they both have fun and engaging personalities vs. the serious must-finish-or-die Staples attitude Marne' and I are burdened with. :) They had great success getting the trim on the exterior wall window and door and first planks of "shiplap" up.
Before we knew it 7 hours had passed and we were finished, exhausted and grateful for their support.
So… next week really should bring an end to the “hanging” of drywall (how’s that arm doing…it is still above your head right??) and we hope to be moving on to painting. Once painting is done, we’ll be able to install flooring. And once flooring is done, we’ll be able to move on to cabinets. Wow, what a journey. Thanks or following along.
Ok, put your arm down tough guy. :)