Garage Update Part 2

Hey now... What have I been up to these past weeks with no posts?

I've been trapped in my garage working on what has turned into the mother of all projects.

When we left off, I was just beginning to mud the drywall I'd patched in the ceiling at the rear of the garage.

Mudding is hard. It's a skill of using just the right amount of compound over the right amount of area. Enough to hide the tape and seams but not so much as to create a bulge.

Good tools help. I went out and bought some new knives, including a large 11" taping knife. My seams looked ok -some better than others. The seams that the drywall installers left are similarly all over the place, some look great and others like a gorilla did them. I think because we weren't paying for a "finished" garage, they just did a rudimentary job which is fine, really. 

For that reason I didn't agonize over the ones I did. I used a wet sponge here and there to smooth things out but there was no real reason to shoot for perfection other than to improve my skills in case I ever had to do this where it really counted.

And mind you, I was working on the ceiling which is even harder. All in all, I'd give myself a B or B+.

So after I finished all the patching and skimming, I set out to paint because after all who doesn't want to prime and paint 1500 square feet of ceiling. Yes, that's right, 1500 friggin square feet and that doesn't even include the walls. Let just say that I seriously underestimated what this job entailed. 

And just forget that nifty idea of using an all-in-one primer/paint product that would cover it all in one coat. No, raw drywall needs to be sealed with a special primer before it is painted. I got a 5 gallon vat of this stuff for about 40 bucks at Discount Builders which works pretty well. It said low V.O.C. but I still feel poisoned by the end of each day.

The other nasty aspect of painting a garage ceiling are all the pipes. I opted for cutting in without tape. OY, OY, OY.

Here is where I stand as of today.

 The far rear east corner is finished. Like, done done. Middlish rear needs paint.

The rear west corner is primed and painted up to as far the workbench.

I have more done at the front than this picture suggests (please do take note of the complete chaos also happening in the garage right now, as I thought it would be fun to also purge stuff at the same time as painting seeing that I was moving everything around). The ceiling and front walls are primed.

I have already started to tackle that blue wall. It's going white with the rest of the garage. All the shelves are currently down and I've started patching some drywall holes.

So there you have it. Nothing terrible sexy going on here but this hard work is going to pay. My garage is going to look stunningly neat and organized. Just wait.