[On to Phase 16]

This phase of the project was left to the professionals! Best money we ever spent!

What is interesting about this work, it cost $5k to do this, of which $1,500 went to the drywall installer (hanger) and the rest went to the plaster guys and materials (which were negligible). For making 142 sheets of drywall look nice, this was a small price to pay. I watch the television show "flip it" and these penny pinchers try to do it themselves to save a couple thousand dollars only to find out they need to skim coat or do other special tasks to make up for blending new with old - this is another area where you just don't want to play do it yourself. Skim coating is extremely difficult - especially if its done on the ceiling, but even on walls its very, very difficult.

I wanted all smooth walls and ceilings -- to match the rest of the house. This is also more the way they did this in the olden days. Newer homes all have textured walls and ceilings for one reason only - cost. This is easier for the drywall people as they don't have to be as exact and also don't need to sand. Essentially textured walls only require to tape and mud. Once this is done, they spray everything with plaster and smash it (scrape it) with a trowel. Unknowingly the contractors did this in the closets which I didn't like but they claimed I didn't specifically request smooth walls in the closet so by default, they texture them - again, because it is faster for them to do this. If you are hiring contractors request to them that you want smooth walls, make sure you specifically write down in your request for smooth walls in closets too. You should also make sure the contractor acknowledges this in his quote to you or that you write it into the quote and have the contractor initial it just so later if this comes up you are covered. This is the view out the new master bedroom window (facing south). You can see here that I also placed an outlet in the middle of each and every window or on either side of the window - its very nice thing to have.

Wall going up to the third floor. You will see here I went a little overboard here and even installed insulation in the stairs in this way you don't get that rattle when you walk up the stairs but rather a very solid sound. Below the stairs, it was surprisingly quiet.

Along either side of the stairs, there was a ledge where the drywall sat so the drywall could lie on top of this board as would the eventual trim board. There was just enough room between the wall studs and the risers for both 1/2" drywall and the 3/4" trim board.

The existence of this piece of wood make finishing the stairs very simple. Just slide the trim board in next to the drywall and nail to the wall studs behind it. I was expecting to have to notch out for each stair, but in this case it was extremely simple.

This is the view looking south out the third floor loft that was created by the "bonus trusses" which was pretty much at roof level of most other houses around so you could see pretty far away! These rooms featured a partial angle 6' up and then after this small angle the ceiling was 8'. At the point of this angle there was a very small gap between the insulation and either the roof or the drywall. To allow for airflow, I bought baffles which attach to the bottom of the roof so that if insulation comes in contact with the bottom of the roof air can still pass through. To the right you'll see some of the built-in book shelves that I installed on either side of the rafters. There were four bookshelves on the west side of the room and another two on the east side. These bookshelves just consisted of a wooden box built to fit between the rafters and exposed just enough to be flush with the drywall once it was installed.

I hired Pat Welsh who had done some other small patch up work for me in the past and made that look simple I asked him he could take on a much larger job. Although he wasn't the cheapest, he was only a couple hundred more expensive and since I knew his work already it was less of a risk to have him do it. Plus, he gave me the quote the exactly when he said he would and when he said he would come and do the work upon agreeing with his quote, he also did that well too. The only thing he could have done better was do more the first day, because it pushed my priming and painting a little, but I really can't complain as he honestly tried to do more but there was so much moisture in the house with all the mud drying that it took an extra day to dry than he originally figured. If you are really pushed for time and have lots of surface area to cover, I suggest renting a couple dehumidifiers and large fans to move air around the mud and dry it faster. If you don't the more rooms you need to plaster the more humid the place will get as a result - which delays the overall drying process.

Here is the master plaster -- Pat Welsh. Quite the character!

It was great to learn how these guys work. When they needed to do the ceiling they wore stilts like the picture below which allowed them to easily cover the surface area quickly and easily. Makes sense although do it yourselfers may try to do this with a ladder which is awkward and very hard on the arms. The dry wall guy actually used a hoist to push up the very heavy 5/8" drywall for the ceiling. Having manually hung ceiling drywall I know how rough that is and was exhausted after only hanging 3 sheets.

Here is Pat Welsh's cohort on stilts up on the third floor. Doing ceilings is for the birds. Note that none of the stairwells had railings so for these guys to reach the ceiling the put a ladder in the stairwell and a plank of wood from the ladder to the top of the stairwell to "somewhat" extend the floor, and then would walk on stilts across this plank to tape and mud the walls and ceiling around the stairwells. When I saw these guys doing this I just had to watch because it took guts to do that, yet they just acted as if it was nothing and within a few minutes they had it all covered. It was amazing to see.

Oh, and the fun part, sanding everything. They sanded for a few days...

[On to Phase 16]

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