more than you wanted to know!

now that i have the vast experience of using over 12 gallons of drywall compound, i'm offering advice and how-tips for all my faithful readers. (all given tongue in cheek, of course.) we tried a new technique on the front living room, and i'm satisfied with the way it turned out. so here is the handy dandy step-by-step tutorial, for those of you brave enough to tackle a huge renovating project of your own.

first, you need to sand the drywall, and prep it for painting. no lumps, bumps or ridges, please. a younger, but not necessarily willing helper, makes this job faster. (but A is having a great time here!) we have found that one of the advantages of having many children is always having someone to draft into doing the dirty work.

here is the living room wall, all spackled and sanded.

there must be a name for this particular technique, but i don't know what it's called. dave read about it in a book at lowe's, and came home and told me that's what he wanted me to do. of course i was eager to do whatever he asked, even though it meant traveling around the room one more time. ( i counted, and to do this room from start to finish, i will be going around and around nine times!) anyway, it involves mixing up a very watery solution of slurry- (think chocolate milk) and then painting it on the walls. unfortunately, dave had not read the whole chapter, and gave me rather vague instructions over the phone from work, and then had to abruptly hang up. (pesky customers!) being the impatient person i am, i decided that i would just wing it, and get started on the room, as it was already 2pm. so off i go, painting on this very strange and messy stuff. dave called back a few minutes later to tell me that he had read the rest of the chapter, and wanted to tell me how to do it. too late!

this is what it looks like going on- kind of wet and furry. the whole purpose is to make the whole wall sort of uniformly drywall compoundy bumpy. that way you don't have any flat shiny spots, interspersed with dull papery spots. that's the theory, anyway, and at this point, it was all blind faith on my part.

here is that section of wall after i've painted on the drywall stuff. the paper gets a little wet, and that's how you can tell where you are, and if you've covered the whole wall. like i mentioned before, it was a helpful thing to do, as it disguises some small blemishes. it also dries quickly, and you don't have to be very particular about edges and corners.

so there you have it. i will try to get pictures of some of our completed rooms soon. it's starting to look a little more finished around here!