I Stink at Drywall

Anything I can do, you can do better. You can do anything better than me. Yes you can! That's a backwards version of the song... you know, from “Annie Get Your Gun?”... “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better?”... It's a musical? Ring any bells? No? … Never mind.

Anyway. Drywall. I stink at drywall. I'm not great at hanging the stuff but I'm spectacularly bad at the mudding part. Let's just say that we are extremely grateful for things like: flat wall paint, pictures, furniture and dim lighting. 

Among the things that we are grateful for are jumbo outlet covers, as seen here:

Since they make these, apparently other people stink at drywall too.

Because you need those to cover this:

That's precision engineering for you.

Here is the same outlet sporting the regular cover.

Did I mention that I'm grateful?

Here's the size comparison. That's our new floor underneath them.

Fantastic!

SO, when it comes to drywall, I put the “Why?!” in DIY, as in: “Why did you let her near a bucket of mud.”

And yet I do mud walls because it's my house and I'm home and no one else is going to do it. You know, anything worth doing is worth doing badly (um, that sounds wrong), that's how I see it anyway.

For example, you notice that the gap between the soffit and the cabinets on the left and the gap between the soffit and the cabinets on the right is larger (the cabinets are level, I didn't put those in). It's because I used too much mud on the left.

Just in case you were wondering how dramatic the difference is. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to fix that.

I did that late at night so we could install the cabinets the next morning. Which brings me to a very important point: Never so anything that you stink at when you are tired. Sound advice, believe me.

Fortunately for me there are ways to hide mistakes. Take the windows in our bedroom. The normal trim doesn't cover the gap.

I haven't painted the trim yet.

So, we added another piece of trim and voila! it looks... well, finished at least.

The other good thing is that once we get curtains up, pictures on the walls and get everything arranged, you don't notice mistakes and subsequent "fixes".

I actually have some tips for drywalling (ummm, seriously? I know, but they're actually helpful). Here goes:

1. Put lipstick on the outlets:

This sophisticated outlet is sporting
cherry lip-gloss from Sephora.

Then, slide the uncut sheet of drywall into place and press it against the outlets. When you pull it off the wall the lipstick will show you exactly where the outlets are and it wipes off the outlets easily. This little trick helped us get the outlet holes in the kitchen more exact.

2. Minimize the butt joints by using long sheets of drywall and by breaking the sheets over the doors or windows.

This is a butt joint, they are very hard to mud.

This is the factory edge. They're beveled so they're easier to  mud.

We used 12' sheets on this wall so there isn't a single butt joint.

That's all I have about drywalling. I share this with you in hopes that you'll be encouraged, as in: “Wow! I was worried about trying this but I know I can definitely do better than Heather.” 

That's me, willing to be the bad example. You're welcome.

I'm off for the weekend, but I'll leave on a cute, fuzzy note. Here's our sweet dog Maisy (AKA Fuzz-butt) having a nap. She's giving me the "What on earth are you doing with that flashy thingy on your face?" look. 

Eeet eez so chic to match your pooch to zee floor.

Notice how she matches the floor? We did that on purpose. No we didn't.

Have a great weekend!

H