It's a....a....Thing!!!

Although installing the drywall, especially on the ceiling, is definitely a two-person job, the conspicuous absence of the other household inhabitants over the last few weeks leads me to believe that mudding and taping is considered a one man (or woman) show. I'm getting down to the short strokes, literally, on the whole mudding/taping of the hub room. With the imminent sanding and accompanying dust in mind, Norm did some research and spent a considerable amount of time puttering around town and in his workshop (also known as the-garage-where-I- can't-park-my-truck) to come up with this:

I knew he was working on something that would allow me to use the sanding attachment for the shop-vac without clogging the filter or killing the motor. Last night was the big reveal. After the requisite oohing and aahing, well, I still had to ask what it was. Visionary that I am, I also had to ask for a demo (since the picture above is not precisely representative of what I saw last night).

 The idea is to use the garbage can and the insert you see here as a baffle. The dust gets pulled in but goes into the garbage can below the insert, while relatively clear air remains in the middle to be pulled into the vacuum cleaner itself. With the addition of weather stripping (and maybe we'll even have enough left to do the front door, huh Norm?) tonight, the lid now fits tight. So tight in fact that if you cover the head of the hose, the garbage can nearly implodes. Nothing a hammer can't set right again...just bang out the dents and you're good to go.

Anyway, the drywall is up and needs only a final skim coat of mud in a couple of spots. We used drywall adhesive since we had lots of firm backing (see the reminder pic below) which really decreased the number of drywall screws required.

With the plywood, panelling and a new layer of drywall, the walls in the hub room are more than an inch thick. This means we'll need extensions for the electrical outlets to bring them flush with the wall.

Here's Rory...Mr. Fastidious has an aversion to dried globs of mud, so he spends considerable time scraping them off for me. With his teeth.

And here's a before and after showing the bulkhead we built to replace the fake beam that was covering up some pipe from the upstairs bathroom.