It's an old, old world

Three examples of the Old World finish on our drywall

There are lots of decisions to be made during a remodel, and -many- of them I let Bill make because of his vision and experience with building so many houses over the years. He definitively knew that he wanted to use an Old World finish on our drywall, which is one of the seemingly endless textures for mudding the drywall. It is hand-applied by a skillful craftsman and each wall is unique.

These photos show a bathroom wall (with blue board for moisture protection) and other walls upstairs. Paint will be applied on top of this texture to enable the Old World finish to blend in just enough to be interesting and unique. We love it!

Accepting, trusting, going with the flow

Ever since the drywall installation process started, there has been a layer of drywall dust all over the house. As the installation was completed and taping/mudding started, I didn't think much of it. The layer of powdered sugar-like stuff was pretty much everywhere, but I found myself noticing it but not reacting in any way to it.

Later, Bill told me that the experts recommended leaving the dust so that extra drywall mud would plop onto it and then be easier to clean up if it fell on a dry, powdered surface rather than the subfloor or masonite sheets. I found myself listening, learning, and realizing that I trust his skills and expertise so fully (and the experience of his chosen subcontractors) that I knew there must be a reason for leaving the dust there. There's a lot of comfort in trusting someone so fully and having zero interest in questioning their approach.

And, yes, we will be using a rake indoors!

Rock on!

The sheetrock is up! Taping of the seams has started with the help of Chris Justi, local rockstar in the drywall business. Check him out if you need drywall!

Just like powdered sugar everywhere, but not at all ediible

Chris Justi working in his latest office

No truer words could be spoken

Lots of evidence but no crimes here

After the drywall sheets are put up, the seams must be taped. Mud comes next.

A magical Monday

Somehow, magically, while we were in out of town with friends, drywall appeared on some of our walls. We noticed elven footprints in the street, on the stairs, here and there throughout the house. Blue board appeared in the bathrooms, white drywall appeared in other rooms, pooooof!

This is how it may seem to others, that this stuff gets done while we hike and sightsee and enjoy time with friends. The actual story is that through many, many phone calls, emails, texts, in-person conversations, and contract signings, Bill arranged for the drywall installation to begin while we were away and it was terribly exciting to see the progress as we returned home. After all of the drywall is installed, it will be taped and mud will be applied using the Old World finish, which we saw in its traditional form at the Ahwahnee Hotel in plaster rather than drywall mud. We continue to thoroughly love our construction journey and see it as the realization of a wonderfully sweet dream that we are so lucky to be able to carry out. Thank you to today's elves, and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow to continue the exciting journey.

Our first clue that elves had been there today

 

Progress!

Pieces of the puzzle

Blue board in the bathrooms

Tieing up loose ends

Elven footprints

A rather dry delivery

We have been doing math homework tonight, and we're not even in school. We had 10,000 square feet of drywall delivered today, which [shockingly] our calculations tell us equates to 11 tons of weight added to the house.

This tells me (again) the importance of structural engineering, acquiring the proper tools, and teamwork! It now makes sense to me why the stucco guy did not want to add the final coat until after drywall is installed, since the house needs to adjust to the extra weight.

This process can be fascinating if you let it be! (A higher-resolution version is on YouTube.)

In the hands of a professional

Yesterday, I worked at home to do some writing. In the afternoon, I took a break and walked upstairs to say something to Bill. I found him halfway in the ceiling, working to put up drywall where our rather large whole-house fan will be installed (inside the laundry closet). I was (again!) amazed at all that he knows and all that he is doing to build our house. I was also amazed at his hands, covered in drywall dust and asked him to stop briefly so that I could capture that moment. I am always mindful of not slowing down his progress or interrupting great concentration on the math that is needed to get angles right and all that stuff. So, it's not a great photo but it does tell part of our story.

As he works to install this big fan, I know that he has one even bigger fan in me.

Ringing in the fun

Our new video doorbell (from Ring) includes auto capture of motion plus the ability to speak with someone who is near your door, even if they don't ring the bell. Yesterday, Bill was inside working when I left for work, and this is our little bit of silliness. :-D