We Have Walls!

This week was filled with greenboard and cement board. We installed all the greenboard pieces except for a couple small ones near the bathtub (a task for tonight). I’m still amazed at how well we did with our measurements for cutouts. One sheet had two outlets, two water lines, and a drain line and they all lined up perfectly – I guess we’re getting pretty good at this!


With the walls and ceiling in place, we now have a lot of mudding to do. Chris started some of it last night but of course it will take a few coats in some places.

We’ve been using the living room as our prep area – it’s a nice straight shot down the hall with the greenboard. Unfortunately cutting gypsum is a very dirty job.


My parents drove down for the weekend to help us with some of the bigger tasks. We started the weekend with a trip to the dump and Lowe’s. I’m sure our neighbors are happy that we no longer have a bathtub (broken into two pieces) on our front lawn.

In the afternoon, Chris and my dad worked to add strength to our floor joists. The 50+ year old joists were sagging a little under the bathroom area. Even with all the plumbing lines in place, they were able to sister up most of the joists.


Our next door neighbors hired a contractor to do some major renovation at their house last year. Fortunately they were nice enough to ask the contractors to leave some of the items for us in case we wanted them. We ended up with quite a bit of loot – a new front door, a few interior doors, two sink tops with faucets, two light fixtures, and a ton of shutters. The light fixtures were brass and didn’t really fit into our new design for the bathrooms. So my mom spent some quality time with the spray paint to turn the light fixtures into something we can use in our master bathroom. I love being able to re-use something!


One other big thing that was started was the replacement of our back door. The door between the kitchen and the back porch was in pretty bad shape. The previous owner’s dogs jumped on it and had claw marks and dirt all over it. It also had an enormous gap for air to come in. Oh and let’s not forget the lovely trim job where they installed the vertical pieces backwards:


So Chris and Dad worked on installing a brand-spanking new door. It’s not finished but already we notice a big difference in air flow (partly due to my awesome Great Stuff job!). I’ll be sure to post pictures of the door when it’s finished.

Now tonight, on our two year anniversary, we’ll be spending some time putting drywall compound on our joints instead of going out for a fancy dinner – isn’t that romantic?