I Aint Gone Lie People...

Mudding ceilings sux. Don't let anybody tell you different. I actually thought I had done a pretty awesome job, till I talked to Joe on the phone and he told me that I needed to go over all the walls and ceiling with a florescent light, looking for imperfections. Damn it! So of course, under florescent light it looked like complete ass (as do ALL things under florescent light now that I think about it). So anyway, I worked on it for a lon glong time. The whole point was to finish so I could get the kitchen and living room primed and therefore stuck down so that I might walk through the house without getting filthy from the plaster dust that penetrates everything. Hope springs eternal right? I'm so demanding!

(note the plaster "chaps," hot look no?)
Anyway, I did succeed in priming the kitchen at least. And guess what? It kinda looks like crap. Such a drag - but hey, it's my first time and Joe can help me perfect it later. For now at least it's clean. And the fact that I did a great job on the walls and corners is some consolation.

Later, I was talking to my neighbor, and I told him what Joe had made me do with the florescent light. He prety much did a spit take. He was laughing his ass off. Apparently, outsiders quickly identify my husband as an insane perfectionist. I appreciate this trait when HE'S doing the work... but when I am? Not so much.

Dry Wall Hell

So yeah, here's what I'm doing now. This is me after countless hours spent sanding the kitchen ceiling and walls, and putting another layer of mud on the corners. Fun times, fun times. At one point I realized that I'd crossed over into insanity. Which of course, meant it was picture time. For the people...
There's sort of a Milky Way thing going on on my T shirt, with Saturn being my right boob. So you see, I find ways to be fancy no matter what I'm doing.
Ick. I'm looking forward to days and days of this. Anyone with a day off feel free to jump on a train and come help me. I promise to amuse you with the weird positions I plaster in (i.e. one foot on top of fridge, one foot on top of ladder) and as always, there will be snacks.

Ch ch ch changes (finally)...

So there's finally been some dramatic movement upstate. Yay! I know we've only had these walls open for a few months but it feels like a long time since anything major happened. We are nickel and diming our way along donthcha know.
Anyway - the doorway in the dining room (creative bricklaying room) has finally been reopened. It looks awesome. This is clearly how it was intended to be. Across the hall you can see where there was once a matching doorway into the living room. That area is now where the super gorgeous parade of plastics bathroom addition was plopped down. And since it's really high functioning it's gonna have to stay awhile. Dang.
When in doubt, just cover your bad decisions up with fauxtastic panneling. Alright people?

Now turning toward the kitchen - we popped open a window of sorts. Why, you ask did we not just open up the whole wall (or at least a doorway rather than a window)? Well frankly, we couldn't sacrifice the wall or storage space. This is the only wall that a refrigerator could go against, and I really want to at least have bottom cabinets. When the cabinets are in, this will hopefully look less window-y and more bar-ish (though I don't want any kind of counter top overhang coming into the dining room). I feel like this was a good way to split the difference and make it a bit more open without trying to make this area something it isn't... in a word, modern.

Here's a full frontal of said pass through.

And finally - some super sexy insulation. YAY!
Those of you who have never paid a $700 heating bill after keeping the thermostat just high enough to stop the pipes from freezing will never know this level of joy.

This week the drywall is going up. We are actually farming that out. Chester (angry Santa) and his boys are doing it, although Joe and I will be doing all the taping and sanding (which should be epic and take forever and ever amen) in order to save on labor.