first floor renovation | drywall days

*This series was written while we were undergoing construction several months ago - hence the present tense. If you missed the first post of this series check it out here , second here and the third here. 

The drywall crew got delayed and ended up starting a day later than expected. They hung all of the board in a day as well as taped and started mudding. On day two, they finished their first coat of mud with just a short day of work allowing it to dry. They will be back for two more short days applying a second coat of mud and then a quick sand. 

With the drywall up, comes the first happenings of things really being put back together. The space looks a little smaller and closed in but its nice to be able to see the individual spaces take shape. As anticipated, its been a messy few days but overall not too bad.

So far, its been a pretty quiet work week which has made me a little nervous that our great progress is slowing. As a professional, I know this is just how construction goes - some days/weeks with lots of things going on and then a bit of a lull - but I will admit it can be hard to not get a little anxious about things dragging on (especially while pregnant!). After drywall, comes the floors which could also mean a slower few days of work as I am unsure how many guys can be in here working at one time. Below are a few pictures from this week's work.  

Want to read more? Check out one or all of these related posts. 

fireplaces part 2
july 2, 2013

black fences
march 28, 2014

our bad ceilings
february 2, 2015

our bad ceilings

I didn't get any real house projects accomplished this past weekend but I did gather my supplies and do a little prepping to paint our stair landing. The transformation won't seemingly be huge as the walls and trim are already white(ish) but a fresh coat of paint can really work wonders to freshen a space. The only problem is the ceiling...

One of things, I have learned is that while ceilings are attempting to ignore they do make a big impact on the feel of a room. A smooth, straight bright white ceiling lifts the eye and makes the room feel larger. While a cracked, poorly finished and dirty white ceiling instantly makes a room feel old and dated. We have already tackled refinishing two ceilings in our house - the master bedroom and the office.

When we bought the house they looked like this...

Bad adhered acoustic tiles that Jeff ripped down on our first work weekend. Once the tiles came down, the ceilings looked like this...

We then handed over the job to professionals who put up new drywall and did an incredible job of making it extra smooth and level. This is what the master bedroom looked like on paint day/the day before we moved in as I rushed to finish the job.

This is how the two ceilings look now.

Pretty exciting stuff for us but for most everyone else I understand that they are just ceilings. But see what a difference it makes! We still have to replace the air vent and get a light in the office. And in the master, we have to caulk the gap between the cove molding and ceiling but at 95% of the way there I call the project complete. 

So now that we are spoiled with two fresh, new drywall ceilings we have to decide what to do about the stair landing. It doesn't have ceiling tiles but it is cracked, patched with different color whites and just overall quite ugly. The photos don't do a great job of conveying its shabbiness. 

In addition, the ceiling over the stairs is in even worse shape.

Ideally, it would be great to have our skilled professionals come back and put up new drywall in these two areas but I don't think its in the cards for us. So I am considering either trying to skim coat/repair them or maybe overlaying bead board or tongue and groove planks. Any readers have experience with old plaster ceilings?