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December 28, 2012

The Mud Room

or laundry room, or back room, whatever you choose to call it...  Last year we had to redo the sunporch room due to leaky, badly installed sky lights.  That leak came pouring through in a rain storm, into the mud room and this fall, the ancient peel and stick tiles started to lift in a few places.  They were going to have to be replaced because I kept tripping over them something awful.  Since they don't really come clean any more, it seemed like a good idea.  Replacing them meant removing the trim and I was told that if we were going to take off the trim, we might as well remove the wallpaper  and then paint the room.

My son, who is a whiz with the wallpaper steamer, took off the trim, which was badly painted, not sanded 1 x 3's and set to the task of removing this lovely wallpaper.  Probably in 1989 it wasn't a horrid choice and the white background did allow a lot of light to bounce around the room, however it is a bit dated so I didn't mind having to lose it.   From one peeling corner, we knew that there was drywall under the paper.  We just didn't know how many layers or if there was any primer on the wallboard.  We knew that in the livingroom, they just papered right over the drywall, leaving us a huge and miserable job.


It turned out the room was partially finished with drywall but the two closets, the closet walls and anything nearby were actually pieced together bits of paneling with badly filled in cracks and grooves.  It was an unhappy surprise to say the least.  It meant a trip to the hardware store to pick up a few unexpected supplies like drywall and drywall compound.  I know my sweetie doesn't revel in having to do drywall, but he does it and does a decent job of it. 


There is still one partial wall to drywall, but it means having to add extra trim and shims to even up the wall which is a bigger job than we were hoping for.  It will have to wait until the last to be done.  Almost all the sanding is finished on the new walls and the next job will be to patch and redo the shoddy plaster job that was done on all the old walls.

All through this my sweetie is helped by the snoopervisor, helper kitten Kevin, who stoically sits on the provided step stool, watching the sanding process.  When he's within close enough distance, he' reach out and whack my sweetie on the nose, with just velvety paws, to remind him he's there.   Once in a while he'll try to actually help with the sanding, which I've been told is no help at all!


1 comment:

  1. urghs, I hate those jobs that start out small - and end up as major renovations:( but at least you have kitty help:) good luck with the finishing - it's not so great now, but once it's done you'll have a better room for years!
    have a good start to the new year!

    Bettina

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