Drywall Dilemma

If you’ve been following our blog since the beginning, you may remember that when we did the exterior sheathing, we strategically left one upstairs window opening unframed and unsheathed in anticipation of using the space as a portal for delivery of the second-floor drywall. When the need to move forward with the siding became urgent, we scheduled the drywall delivery. And that’s when the drywall completely took over our upstairs. But first, the big delivery day.

 

 

 

Once it was all unloaded, which took a team of men and several hours (those 12 x 4 sheets are extremely large and heavy!), the second floor was completely lined with vertical stacks of drywall sheets, blocking doorways, hallways, and former stud wall pass-throughs. The problem was, we really weren’t ready for it yet! We simply needed to get that window framed in so we could start the siding because winter was on the way and we felt a sense of urgency to get the house buttoned up. There were a host of things that needed to be done before we were ready to seal up the stud walls and ceiling with drywall–things like electrical wiring, boxes, outlets, switches, plumbing tubing and pipes, networking cable, and insulation, for crying out loud! Most importantly, the siding had to be done first, and–once again–we were tormented by rain delays!

Drywall delivery day was August 23, and we did not actually get around to starting to install the drywall until October 11. And we only started it that day because it was raining and we couldn’t be outside installing siding. We have had to learn to be so flexible about things like this. If we are prevented from doing one task, for whatever reason, we just keep going with another task. We end up with a lot of loose ends, but we are always moving forward in one way or another. A common expression has become, “It’s all gotta get done sometime.”

We do feel good about the quality fire-resistant drywall we purchased, 1/2″ for the walls and 5/8″ for the ceilings. And, one of the most brilliant purchases of equipment for this project is our amazing drywall lift. It was a bit of an investment, but we will sell it when we are finished with it because, well, we sure don’t plan to drywall any ceilings for quite some time…or ever.

We talked about the insulation installation adventure in a previous post. So, once the ceiling insulation was up, we could start the ceiling drywall in those rooms. We really dislike saggy ceilings (who doesn’t?) so we are gluing as well as screwing the drywall.

 

Some pieces were exceedingly difficult to place–like the piece for the tall ceiling in the stairwell. There wasn’t enough room on the landing for all three legs of the lift, so we had to come up with a makeshift support.

 

 

 

Uh, yeah, it was a bit precarious–maybe–but we got ‘er done. Somewhere around this time, we decided Sue doesn’t have to be at the work site all the time, so she is now helping in other supportive ways—running errands, doing research, ordering things online, and stopping by once in awhile to clean up and organize. Her knee is also causing her a lot of problems, and that played into the decision as well. But we’re getting way ahead. Back to the drywall….

The ceiling drywall was by far the most back breaking. Fortunately, over the years Kevin has become extremely adept at lifting and maneuvering large, heavy things without injuring his back or shoulders, although the tendinitis in his elbows is still plaguing him. But he keeps at it, long hours, often all alone, and gradually it is getting done.

The walls went up much quicker with those long, 12’ spans and much more easily reachable spaces.

But every now and then he had to stop to finish more plumbing and electrical before covering it forever with drywall.

Bit by bit our hallways and doorways were being cleared of stacks of drywall. As the walls went up, we sometimes missed being able to slip through stud walls to get around up there, but it was nice to see spaces clearing and rooms taking shape.

 

 

 

 

Eventually we got to the point where we needed to do some dry walling downstairs, so we started borrowing drywall from upstairs. Despite the enormous size and weight of those sheets, we had a pretty good system for bringing them down.

In all candor, the atmosphere at the work site is not always the epitome of pleasant, as fatigue, pain, differences in ways of thinking and responding, and the sheer overwhelming magnitude of the project before us, coupled with the frustration at times of things going wrong–or at least not working out as we had hoped–ripens the atmosphere for flares in temper, snappy impatient responses, and less than kind banter. However, we did manage to pull it together for a few minutes to create this video for you.

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, the second big shipment of drywall–for the first floor and garage–was delivered. Once again we  had stacks of dry wall everywhere, which gave us motivation to get it put up. But we have the same issue we had upstairs–the plumbing and electrical have to be completely ready before we bury the tubes, pipes, and wires behind the walls. Not only that, but the larger-than-expected duct work for our new HVAC system created a need for large soffits through the garage and all across the middle of the house. And there were places where we had to get creative, so all that took time–time to think, plan, purchase materials, and build it all.

At this time, the overriding concern was still (as mentioned in the previous post) getting that pile of sand off the driveway before it froze. The sand is for the dry pack process we will use to level the slab floor, but–as usual–we can’t do that until we do another project–the drywall, because it’s best to finish the dry pack to the drywall. So, the drywall once again moved to to the top of the priority list, while that poor pile of sand sat on the driveway, wondering whether we would get to it before it became covered in frozen snow.  And Old Man Winter was breathing down our necks.

 

 

 

 

Fortunately our grandson Shep came to help one day. He’s the cutest helper we’ve had so far!

And that just seems like a nice place to end this post. Stayed tuned for PEX for the Home Run and to find out what happens to that pile of sand!