I'm a Drywaller!

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I've been trying to find a drywall contractor to finish the garage and studio but not having much luck. They are all busy, and the one that came and gave a bid wanted $4300. That was about twice what I was expecting to pay. So Friday I bought a "how to" book and read it that night. Saturday morning I bought drywall and rented the Home Depot flatbed truck and Javier to help me unload it and then I got to work.

I rented a brilliant invention called a "panel lifter" that allows a single person to drywall ceilings and upper walls. I was able to hang the drywall in the entire studio pretty much by myself. Ken and Britt and family fortuitously came by for pizza Saturday evening and Ken helped me with the awkward gable pieces and the first ceiling panel. Carol helped me today with the two 12' panels I used. The most value from the book was in laying out the project for minimum linear feet of joints to tape. I think I did pretty well. For example, I used 12' panels to cover an 11' span of wall with no butted joints.

Hanging is pretty much the easy part. The real test is taping and mudding. You don't really know how well you've done that job until you paint the walls. So we'll see. We're reminding ourselves that it's only a studio so we don't care if it's perfect. But obviously I'd like it to look nice.

I just have the skylight left to do in the studio. I'll probably start taping evenings this week and then tackle hanging the garage next weekend. But tonight the studio looks like a real room and I'm very satisfied with what I accomplished in one weekend with no experience.