Basement update: Mud & Tape

I was working from home on Thursday morning this week for a few hours, so that I could meet with our carpet installer and he could do measurements. While waiting for him I took a look in at how the drywall mud and taping is going.

These guys have major skill. Makes me embarrassed to look at the 3 foot patch of drywall we did ourselves 6 months ago when we pulled an old freezer out of our kitchen wall. Oh well, at least I have learned now that this is one project to leave to the pro's. They are so fast, and everything looks perfectly smooth....

Best day ever... Drywall

We officially have drywall in our basement! It all went in yesterday (all in 1 day) as planned. It will still be another 5-7 days (planning on next Friday) for it to officially be done, since they need to tape and plaster it, and apparently there is drying time needed between each time they plaster and sand it.

In case anyone is wondering, it cost us a total of $3,000 for the whole basement to be drywalled including all the mud and taping. We also saved about $500 by doing all the cleanup of the drywall scraps and taking them to the dump ourselves. Seriously the best money we have EVER spent. SO happy.

Here are a few pictures:

Matt contemplating how amazing a drywalled basement is

 The view from our living room

View from the other side of our living room

Looking into our future office.. this room is going to be pretty big (seems larger now that there are real walls for some reason). Can't wait to move our desk and bookshelves down here and make it feel like a real grown up office/library. 

The far back guest room... had a difficult time getting a picture of this room, it's not actually that small, but there isn't a light in there yet and was hard getting a good picture from any angle. Still lots of drywall scraps in this picture too. 

My first attempt at Drywall

While Matt was busy working on electrical... last weekend I decided I needed a project to work on at the house. SO, I took my first try at installing some drywall. It was easier in some ways than I imagined (the measurig and cutting of it was quite easy), and yet took me much longer than I thought (getting it level and screwed in with one person was not so easy)... but that's how you learn and I'm sure next time will go faster. Haha, and there will be plenty of basement for me to practice on.

I covered up our half-wall/railing that goes around our staircase leading down to the basement. We rebuilt this when we tore out the full floor-to-ceiling walls around the staircase when the new stairs went in earlier. It won't be finished of course until we mud and tape it (which we are planning to hire someone to do once the whole basement has drywall)... but it is nice to have it covered and more finished looking (meaning there aren't just 2x4's framed together and open to stairs where a small child could fall through). 

A couple pictures to prove I did it!