Visible Progress

Today, I made visible progress!  I sanded the entire second coat of drywall, but there were a few spots that really needed a third coat.  Mostly, these were on 3.5" wide walls with two corner beads.  The corner beads that close together create a dip between that takes a few coats to fill enough to look good.  I bought some quick-dry drywall compound and did some touch ups.  I was planning to sand that tonight and be done with that part, but I ran out of steam.

While I was waiting the 45 minutes for the mud touch ups to dry, I primed both of the little caves and the chalkboard area.  These areas will be different paint than the rest of the walls.  Inside the caves will be good 'old ceiling white like our closets.  I really have had enough of crawling into those little caves.  I'm sure the girls will play with them lots before they turn into storage, but I am bigger than the three of them put together.  I actually looked into getting a drywall guy out to finish up this project for me, but then figured that whomever I could find probably wouldn't be able to get in there and I'd have to do it myself anyway.  One more coat of paint in those holes and I should never have to crawl in there again!  I actually enjoy painting, so I'll be happy to get this done!

The chalkboard will be old schoolhouse green.  Lots of shades of green for my Sydnye! :)  Another motive for jumping ahead with the chalkboard painting: it requires two to three  coats of the paint and several days to cure before chalk is used on it.  Having that done sooner will require less explaining to the girls on why they can't use the chalkboard yet. 

I still have tomorrow off before I have to go back from work.  Tomorrow, my plan is:

• Sand the drywall touch ups
• Super-clean up all the construction dust
• Paint the inside of the caves
• Put down the new carpet tack strips
• Put the carpet down
• Cut the 2x4 pieces for the bed frame
• Get the trundle unit put in the room

I will have to wait for Patrick to get home from fishing tomorrow to get the trundle in there.  I want it in (the bottom is removable) so that I can be sure I get the bed frame height correct with the carpet taken into consideration.  If I get the bed frame up, yay me, but I want to get them cut to take advantage of this warm spell.

I must get this project done before I start anything else, but I found plans for a cute little library cart that would fit perfectly into one of the caves.  Maybe this summer.  It is a much smaller project than this room though!

Slow, but not forgotten...

No, the room isn't done yet.  No, I didn't forget about it. 

Between my last post and last week, I managed to apply the first coat of drywall mud.  It took me several 1-2 hour sessions to get that done.  That still doesn't add up to four months, but if you throw in ragweed session, cold and flu season, my new role as a Girl Scout leader, on top of my usual life as full-time employee, wife, and mother of three little girls ... yeah. 

I've been on vacation this week, yay!  Between last week and this, in addition to Christmas and a trip to Great Wolf Lodge, I managed to sand that first coat of drywall mud, apply the entire second coat, and have started sanding that coat.  I'm hoping to get the sanding done tomorrow and put the carpet back in place.  Possibly I'll even do the bed framing itself.  We've hit a spell of unseasonably warm weather here in northeast Ohio, which means I should think hard about doing those cuts in the next two days.  I also have Monday off, but then it is back to the same old, same old.  Sydney could sleep in her room even if I don't get to the painting.  That, and use her dresser and closet, all of which would make her big sisters happy. :)