white noise

We now have at least one coat of color on about half of the basement. The wet bar is in pretty good shape having two coats already:

And here’s a wider shot of so you can see the color scheme a bit better:

The shelf for the rack components is looking good, too. I couldn’t wait to put the cover plates back on!

And here’s how half of the ceiling is shaping up:

There’s hours of tedious cut-in work when it comes to painting these different colors, but it’s coming together.

We finished the priming coat of paint at the end of last weekend – right on the planned schedule. Now we’re on to the first coat of color. There are five different colors in the main room – is that too many? It’s not as bad as it sounds. The theme is roughly brown and blue – again, not as bad as it may sound – with three shades of brown and two of bluish-purple. The colors are hard to judge while it’s in process, but it should turn out great.

The plan for the next week and a half is to finish the first coat (and second in some spots) and install the wet bar. After that comes door casing, caulking, and a second coat of paint. Floor and baseboards will likely have to wait till after the big party. We’re planning to shift most of our effort toward Halloween once October is here.

Painting continues. Last night I got half of hell’s ceiling primed. It took about 4.5 hours. Here’s a couple shots of the latest:

Labor Day weekend lived up to its name. I made a 4-day weekend out of it – and spent it all in the basement. Dad came down for the weekend as well, so Donna and I had some much needed help. It doesn’t get much more tedious then finishing a drywall job. This is where it all catches up with you – a little uneven framing here, a bubble in the tape there – it all has to go away in this stage. Coat, sand, rinse, repeat…until it all disappears.

When Sunday rolled around pretty much all the drywall was finished. The final tally was 45 gallons of mud. It was great to sweep up and know the end of dust-filled days was in sight. By the afternoon Donna and I began painting. We got two and half room primed that night.

Gradually the dark, dusty basement is finally looking like a real living space. Priming will continue throughout the week. Hopefully everything will be primed by the end of this weekend. Painting in general will be on-going for quite some time. We have 20 gallons of paint queued up (and probably more to come).

Seriously tired of everything to do with drywall. Happy to report, however, that the second coat is complete. I’ve applied 35 gallons of mud at this point – probably 34.5 gallons to the walls and ceiling and a half gallon to my lungs and digestive track.

Mudding continues. Will it never end?

A brief basement update here. We just finished taping and cornerbead tonight (well a tiny bit remains here and there, but I’m calling this phase over). Now to go back over everything with another couple coats of mud. This is taking forever! But things are shaping up.

A few pictures so you can see where the 77 sheets of drywall went…

The stairway with the very hard to find recessed lighting:

The main room. A large movie screen will sit between the built-ins…eventually. The built-in shelves are looking good – a ton of work – but they are lit on a dimmer and have a really clean look.

To one side of the main room we have the future home of the wet bar. Here I will mix many a drink as we try to forget how much work all this was.

Just adjacent to the wet bar is a hallway leading back to other rooms. Here you can catch a glipse of two features which should be filed under “you really like to make a lot of work for yourself”: three cutout “windows” (to mirror the three-shelved built-ins) and beyond that, a lighted niche.

Down the hall on the right is a furnance room and the laundry room which you can get a glipse of below. The door on the right goes to storage under the stairs (also taped and mudded).

And that brings us to the end of the hall where we have the “back” room. It’s a small bedroom/exercise room/whatever with a large (unfinshed storage closet behind it).

And lastly, I bring you back to the main room, to see the best picture I could manage of the ceiling…my Sistine Chapel…or what Donna calls “the work of a mad scientist evil genius>”.

From my basement expenses spreadsheet I summed up the number of sheets of drywall it took. Any guesses?

77! Three of those were 10′, the rest 8′. Four were green board, the rest standard 1/2″ stuff.

Meanwhile, taping and mudding continues.

Ok, so the project is in its 20th month. Damn, that’s a long time.

At this point ALL of the drywall is hung and we’re closing in on having it all taped (maybe one more week). I need to tally how many sheets it took, but it was plenty more than I expected. We just ordered the cabinents and countertop for the wet bar. That stuff really adds up – nearly $700 for just a couple cabinents and about 7 foot of Formica countertop. That order will be ready in about two weeks so we really need to step it up. None the less I’m betting the cabinents sit in the garage for a couple weeks.

Things are looking good though, maybe better than I expected. I’ll post some pics soon.

Coming up…more taping, more mudding, more sanding, then primer!