More Drywall...

Hi!

It's Friday and a day off school for the kids.  We're busy with company, a birthday party, a doctor's appointment and going to Summerside to Skype to my SIL's wedding in Ontario!  K flew to ON on Wednesday with his mom for a quick trip to be there for the wedding.  We get to watch it via the internet with my FIL.  K will be back on Sun.  Tomorrow the kids and I are going to Charlottetown for the day.

In other news, we have another lice outbreak! :-(  We get notes frequently from the Elementary school re: lice and a few weeks ago from the kids' acting saying 2 separate classes were infected! I've been checking and unfortunately today I found one.  Yuck....

So, I really wanted to be done with the bedroom on Sunday for a "Big Reveal" for K's return.

However... with all that's going on, I don't think it'll be done.  I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, although I am making progress.

When I went grocery shopping Thursday, I got all the supplies to finish up the crown moulding, trim and baseboards.  

This ended up costing $235 (which is one of the reasons I kept putting it off!).

I also picked out some Orbit Recycled paint but I will keep the color a surprise!

I actually cut all the crown moulding yesterday afternoon with only one bad cut (the first one- then I learned better)!

I sanded the drywall this morning. 

I ended up skim coating all the walls. 

And I got that plug all fixed up.

 I didn't skim coat that little part above the door. 

I'll see if I can tell the difference after it's all done.

So, there are some spots that aren't entirely smooth.... Should I keep mudding or just accept it as is?

I'm going to sweep up the dust,

(BTW, I use the dust control drywall mud and it really works to keep the dust down.  It mostly falls directly to the ground.)

and then decide...

I guess if it's not going to be finished by Sunday, there's no reason to rush it, but I am eager to get painting! 

Hope you have a great weekend! :-)

Notes to myself on Drywall and the Master Bedroom

Hi!

Not much progress on the bedroom... Still doing taping and mudding.

This post is mostly just to remind myself on what I've been doing so I won't forget!

As I mentioned in my last post,  I used a plastic corner piece on the corner by the closet and "built-in" dresser.

With the mud on, it seems to be working out!

In the past, I've always done the mesh tape on the drywall joints and paper tape in the corners.   More recently, in the front room, I used paper tape with metal for the corners on the blackboard. I've never really had a problem using paper tape. Somewhere, I read that paper tape is actually stronger on seams, so I've decided to do that in the bedroom to see how it works.

On some of the seams, there was a gap which needed to be filled.

On the front wall (by the master bath)

and front corner, 

I filled the seams with one coat of mud, then did the tape.  This left me having to do more filling in on top of the tape because I had squished the tape into the crack.

On the back part of the wall, 

I did more mud filling before doing the tape.

We'll see how they hold up...

I did have a couple places where the tape bubbled up.  

On the wall by the bathroom, 

and to the left of the front window. 

I cut the tape out and redid it.

So far the more mudded tape has stuck fine.  Although, after reading the box of drywall mud, I see you can thin it out for seam filling and I think that would've been a good idea.

Now, I'm waiting for the thicker coats of mud to dry.  I'm debating whether to skim coat the walls...

I've got a list of mouldings to get on Thursday to finish up the room. I will actually install the crown and baseboards after priming and before painting. This way I can caulk the gaps and paint over them. In other rooms, the walls were done and are still waiting on the mouldings!  

There are a few outside corners

(and inside corners)

 that are a bit tricky to figure out, but I've done it before,

so I can do it again!  

With the big miter saw, it's not too bad!

I've got the primer, but still need to get paint.  Part of the walls are already cream colored (see above pic), like the back room and kitchen, so I'll probably get something similar to that in a no VOC paint.  I'd tested out a grey (see above pic), like the front room, but it didn't look right.  I also tried out a very dark grey (see above pic under light grey), like the accent wall in the back room, but it was too dark.  So, I guess I'll stay with the light color.  The kitchen is Boomerang Paint in Cotton which seems to be holding up well, but it definitely needed two coats and is only Low VOC's (instead of No VOC's). The back room was probably Premier paint from Canadian Tire.  I like the Premier with Built-in Primer so I may get that, or maybe Benjamin Moore from Canadian Tire, since it's on sale.  Will check them out. Both are good.

Ok, that's it for now!

Have a great day! :-)

Drywall in the Bedroom

Hi!

We had a long weekend here, with Monday being Islander Day.  The kids spent Saturday night at my inlaws so K and I had the night to ourselves.   Valentine's Day was Sunday. We went into Summerside to have dinner at the inlaws' with the kids.

I've started drywalling the remainder of the master bedroom!

I got this little part done on Monday. It needed a bunch of little pieces cut, including the one above the door.  On the corner, I'm using a plastic corner piece.  Not sure how it will work (I don't see how it will get smooth and parts are still bumpy), but I'll mud it up and see...

K had been working on the wiring and got it finished Monday night.   

This meant I could put in a little more insulation, tape up the plastic and screw in the drywall that's been sitting there for I don't know how long!  I got this done on Tuesday (yesterday).

Here's the other corner.

Still a lot of work to do, but it's nice to make some progress!

We had a warm spell yesterday (and today).  It got up to 8C (45F) and a lot of snow has melted.  Here's how it looks out the kitchen window. 

We still have a few Valentine's decorations up!

Last year we had a storm on Islander Day weekend, here's how high the snow was!

It's been a great winter snow-wise, with no storms in the forecast for the next week!

Hope you're having a great day! :-)

Skiing!

Hello again!

Yesterday, we had a fun day!  K took a vacation day and we took the kids out of school for the afternoon and went to Brookvale Ski Park!  

It was the kids' first time to downhill ski.  K had been in high school and I went in university. We'd been wanting to go for a while and heard Wednesday afternoons were the least crowded.  Plus, it wouldn't interfere with acting classes on Tues and Thurs.  I'd been watching the weather on Wednesdays and so far this year, it hadn't been that great.  But yesterday was perfect (Neg4C (25F) and little wind), so off we went!

Here are some pics from the day.

K and C discussing how to ski. 

Here's C getting ready to go up the carpet lift on the Bunny Hill.

N flying down the Bunny Hill. (My shadow, riding up the carpet lift.) 

K coming down and C going up. 

K has got the hang of it! 

Picture time. 

Me

After trying out the bunny hill a few times, K and N went up on the lift.  C and I followed. 

We caught up to each other later.  That's K and N on the lift in front of us. 

Funny selfie.

N and C on top of the hill. 

A little video of C. 

One of N. 

At the end of the day, getting ready to turn in our skis. 

C and I stuck to the easy hills, Cruise Control and Double Trouble.  N and K tried the next level and went down the West Hill.  Unfortunately, K wiped out!  He's ok except for a slightly sore wrist this morning.  The kids fell a few times but nothing serious. Because of my s...u...p...e...r.... s...l...o...w.... descents, I stayed on my feet the whole time! ;-)

All in all, it was a great day!  I'm so glad we were able to go and try it out!

Have a fantastic day!  :-)

Shelves, etc.

Hi!

We had another snow day yesterday!  Now it's back to school...

C has been wanting shelves above her desk for a while now. She wanted to get rid of the secretary insert on top of the desk so she'd have more desk top space.  I finally got around to making the shelves last weekend.  I used the leftover birch plywood from the bench in the old front room.  Last summer, my dad had cut this plywood so I could build the benches under the front room lockers.  But, I decided they should be cushioned, so I ended up using different (not so nice) plywood.

So, I used the nice birch plywood for C's shelves!

We primed and painted the shelves on the weekend.  The desk top had a bunch of permanent marker marks on it, so it got primed and re-painted on the weekend, too. I put the shelves up while C was at school on Monday and she was very pleased to see them up when she got home! I used the brackets from the shelves that are now sitting under the recycling. (Those shelves were nice, but they weren't quite long enough to use above the desk.) I put a small shelf from the storage room on the bottom so she'd have room for pens, pencils, etc.  I wasn't sure if it should get painted, but for now it's staying as is.

C rearranges her room often, but this is how her room looked January, 2015.

Her desk had been moved to where the bookshelf is now. You can see the secretary insert on the back of the desk.

N wanted more desk top space, so he got the other birch plywood piece cut to fit beside his desk.

It sits on top of a shelf unit.

Here's how this corner looked in May, 2015.

I put up another little shelf from the storage room for Pokemon stuff. 

Before, it was just a blank wall.

It's nice to get these little projects done (and use up some materials!)

Enjoy the rest of your week! :-)

Headboard Take 2

Hello!

The long weekend is over- we had a snow day on Friday, so it was only a 3 day school week last week! More snow on the way tonight!

I shopped on Saturday (with the kids) and we stopped by Rose Cottage Antiques to pick up some Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint.  I wanted "Trophy Gray" to paint my headboard.  However, they are not selling MMS Milk Paint anymore and only had a few bags left, not including TG.  They are selling Fusion Paint.  I found a nice gray, Ash, but they didn't have the regular size (for $23, I think).  So, I decided to buy a tester (for $5).  

I came home and tested it out...

It turns out that the tiny tester, covered the whole (well, almost) headboard!

Since I wasn't sure how much the paint would cover, I left the middle part bare. And decided I liked that look!

The paint was great!  Zero VOC's, excellent coverage, etc!  Now I want to paint everything with this paint!

Here's how the headboard looked all wood.

Before I tried to upholster it.

Here's the headboard in the bedroom. 

Here is the before (upholstered).

 I took down the giant mirror. Now you can see the little cubby that used to be an opening for part of a window when this was the outside of the cottage.  I'd filled in 1/2 the opening, not really sure why we left this little part... Anyway, it's 24x20", the same size as the frame I keep my jewelry on.

Two pictures might work well above the bed, but I should probably still fill in the cubby and cedar shingle it.

I moved the mirror to the corner. 

It's so big!  I like it there, It reminds me of a hotel room. Not sure what to do with the smaller mirror on the right.  C needs one, but she doesn't like the old door part... ;-)

Speaking of C, I moved the foam that I'd taken from the old headboard to her bed.

Use it or lose it!!

Happy Mardi Gras tomorrow!  :-)

Cross Country Skiing

Hi!

This is a busy week for me- with 2 meetings, one for C's school and one for N's; a dentist appointment for C; work on Thursday (all day from 9-5); the regular acting lessons for C and N; plus yesterday was a day off school!  

Our weather has been so nice this winter!

On Sunday, N tried out the cross country skis K and I bought so many years ago when we lived in Halifax (probably around 1996!).

With an extra pair of socks, N can wear the shoes for me. I can fit into K's shoes with 3 pairs of socks! We have the old style of skis that I often see at second hand stores, but never with the special shoes that go with them.  

We need two more pairs so the whole family can go.  I'll keep looking around and maybe I'll find two used pairs for the kids....

With the little bit of snow we got on Friday, we had just enough for skiing.

BTW, this is how much snow we had last winter at this time!

It was up to 8C (46F) on Monday so a lot of snow melted. 

Here's how it looked on Sunday! 

Yesterday the kids went into the back field a bit further and were able to find a great spot to ski and sled.  The top of the snow is icy, so it's good for sledding. They even used the skies as sleds and rode them sitting down! It turned out to be a nice day to have a break from school.

Hope your week is going well! :-)