Filler post

Figured I should make an update just to check in and say, "Hey, we're still doing this thing."

That said, there are no pictures. You wouldn't want any. Trust me.

So here's the short list of what we've done since the last update:

• Filled and sanded the screw holes in the door casing between the laundry room and the office.


• Sanded both sides of the office door.


• Determined how much we'll have to cut off the ends of the closet doors to make them fit, and worked out a way to install the trim around the closet so the door will still open without looking ridiculous.
  
  (This was harder than you might think, mostly due to some stupid, stupid drywall edges and - of course - non-plumb/non-level framing/drywalling and general asshattery.)


• Installed trim around office door.


• Filled and sanded the screw holes in the trim around the bookcase.


• Primed the bookcase.


• Primed the bookcase again.


• Put a coat of white paint on the primed bookcase.
  
  (I'm so freaking SICK of painting a coat of white paint on a coat of white paint. Holy crap does that suck. And that's also why there are no pictures. Trust me, it's so boring, I can't even describe how bad the pictures would be without falling asleep. Oh, I will post one picture; getting the paint into those top four narrow shelves was an absolute bitch until I saw this pretty little number at the paint store:
  
  
  
  Cute as the dickens, and SO amazingly useful - not just for the shelves, but also for getting the side of the trim when it's too close to the wall for a normal brush.)


• Painted the bathroom door (both sides).


• Painted the bathroom door again (both sides).


• Installed baseboards around eighty-five percent (give or take) of the office.
  
  (I suppose I could have taken a picture of the baseboards, but I haven't finished installing all of them because we have to put the vertical trim up around the closet first, and can't do that until we put the horizontal trim across the top of the closet, and can't do that because it needs to be trimmed down first and I can't do that because I left the dado blade in the table saw and put it away around the corner in the laundry room so I'd have room to install the baseboards and I don't feel like lugging it back into the office and changing the blade over when I'll probably have to put the dado back on anyway to do the trim around the workshop door - if we ever get THAT installed...
  
  Anyway, I'll take a photo when they're done, mmkay?)


• Painted the trim (two coats) on the bathroom side of the bathroom door.


• Painted the trim (two coats) on the office side of the bathroom door.


• Installed the handle and strike plate on the bathroom door

Uh.... I think that's about it... Oh, we also mowed the lawn, got our fridge fixed, watched parts of the three games the Jays lost to the Indians, ruled out one of the places we were thinking of getting hitched, and made an excellent mac'n'cheese with some of the old cheddar the Top Brass brought last week. But nobody cares about any of that except us. So... yeah. Pretty full weekend.



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There's nothing funny about drywall

I tried to come up with an entertaining title for this post, I really did. The problem is that, when you get right down to it, there's just nothing entertaining or remotely funny about drywall. It sucks that much. It's like a black hole of humor. Say anything funny or try to crack a joke around drywall, and the gypsum will suck it right out of the air, while the person you were talking to just stands there with a quizzical look on their white-dusted face.

Try it. I dare ya.

Anyway, we've been spending our evenings and weekends putting up drywall for a little more than a week now, and there's really only one thing that keeps me going: the knowledge that we've decided to hire someone else to do the mudding. I don't care what it costs - I ain't doing it myself. He's coming over on Tuesday night to give us an estimate, but I assure you, it's just a formality. If he's willing to do it, he can name his price.

With drywall being the sucking black hole of non-comedy that it is, I don't really have anything funny to say, so I'll just put up some pictures and go back to what I was doing (watching the Canucks do their impersonation of drywall - yuk yuk yuk).

Here's the soon-to-be-built-in bookcase:



And here it is from the other side:



Oh, and before you start posting snarky comments about how big some of the gaps are, the drywall guy even SAID we could get away with a fair bit of "amateur" effort if we had a professional mudder, so nyaah.

Oh, and I managed to get the hole cut into the cold air return for the office before calling it a day:



So, sorry about the lack of my trademark "wit", but like I said, drywall just isn't very entertaining.

Oh, right! I mentioned something last time about the hammer drill issue. I should probably explain.

See, ever since we started this little project, we've been using Steve's hammer drill because we don't have one of our own. Now, Steve's hammer drill is a perfectly serviceable hammer drill - for your average homeowner. Sadly, it wasn't exactly designed for the shit and abuse that I was putting it through, and it kinda stopped working so hot. The motor still works and everything, but the chuck kinda doesn't really grip the bits very well, and the teeth and key are worn down so much that it's impossible to tighten.

So... well, we bought Steve a new hammer drill. One that's just as good as the one we wrecked. But we couldn't exactly go and buy Steve a new hammer drill and then turn around and use it before he even got a chance to lay eyes on it. Not to mention that I'd probably destroy it anyway, and then we'd have to buy him ANOTHER one.

So while we were buying Steve a new hammer drill, well, we kinda bought ourselves a little present. Something a little more heavy-duty... just to help with all the TapCons we have left to do, you know?



Ain't she pretty?
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