Mudding and taping is like icing a cake BUT finding studs in 12-foot drywall? Well ...

My l'il Mudder (*As I'll refer to her in this post) has, I feel, discovered a new calling. After a quick, "how to apply drywall tape and mud 101" Mudder plunged her spreader into the mud and smeared a generous layer across her first seam. Meanwhile, I was busy measuring and cutting drywall to finish up the closet in "The Office."


We've discovered that drywall needn't be the Goliath task it seemed. While mudder - ever the glassy-eyed optimist - joked about taking up another career, I'm just focusing on taking it one step at a time, and keeping the cursing to a minimum.

Mudder's drywalling speed improved dramatically when she began taping and mudding the second closet and as you can see from her expression, she's having a blast...

Handyman Al stopped helped us hang sheets of 12 feet x 4 feet drywall on our bedroom ceiling. In spite of having to trim about a half inch from the first sheet before we could inch it into place, the process went quite well. It's not for the weak of body but as Al and I held the sheet in place (with help from some heavy-duty, super-glue) Mudder fired in the screws. Unfortunately the studs we'd marked so carefully weren't lining up. When that happens, you get this (see below). And that's going to be a bee-itch for Mudder to tape :)

I've been splitting my time before and after work chiselling the lino from the floor, still hoping we won't need to install new sub-flooring. It seems each time we ask someone about the remnants on our floor, we get a different answer: 1) "Instead of trying to lift off the linoleum I think it'd be easiest to put in a new sub." 2) "I wouldn't worry too much about the uneven spots, you can use floor leveller to fix that." 3) ..."I'd be careful using that leveller. It's not cheap and you can end up spending a lot of money on it (as much a new sub-floor? Doubt it) I've heard it's pretty hard to nail through that stuff."

I've got about another eight feet of scraping left and I'll be done the hallway. I'll let you know what we decide to do about the glue used to affix the tiles in the living room but I've got a hunch how that'll turn out. Wish me luck!