Finally, they are working on the shop

[Firedome]

We had the spray-in foam done in our VT camp, it's really effective, made a huge difference , well worth it.

[electra225]

The young man who is out here mudding and texturing the ceiling is a member of a 16 person family that only does drywall. The young men who put the sheetrock up were some of his relation. Both sides of his family are drywallers. He has been walking on stilts since he was 11. He puts them on in the corner. Really interesting to see him work. He uses drywall mud that dries in 20 minutes, so he'll texture yet today. I did this a lot remodeling houses and I can now see I did it the hard way.

He used a method he called a "skip trowel" method to texture the ceiling. He basically used an 18" trowel with really soft texturing mud, then skipped it over the sheetrock. He says that 90% of the new homes built are textured using this method. I'd never heard of it. He used real texture mud, which is a mixture of gypsum and fiberglass. It's made specifically for texturing. Trowel marks tend to flow out of the texture. I always textured with drywall mud. The difference is that texture mud is to drywall mud like frozen custard is to ice cream. I was impressed watching this young man work. I definitely did it the hard way the few times I textured drywall. There may have been improvements in materials in the intervening years as well.

[TC Chris]

The young man who is out here mudding and texturing the ceiling is a member of a 16 person family that only does drywall.

Send your drywall crew to Michigan, please. The new addition on my house--new just before i bought it 27 years ago--has never been finished. First i was too poor and now there are no crews available. They're all working on the McMansions and condo complexes. I tried to find somebody a few years back without much luck. I hung, taped, and mudded my shop in 1996 but that was when I had more time on my hands. It would be so sweet to have more space for books, radios, and audio stuff, and maybe a little electronics bench off in the corner. And the LPs.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I don't mind working drywall and get fairly good results. But this young man got more done in a hour than I would have in a day. Granted, he has been doing this for probably 20 years full time, but still. He worked on stilts, I had to move a ladder around. He used real texture mud, I worked regular drywall mud, which is harder to work and needs to be sanded. I've been right at a year getting this shop built, and am not out of the woods yet, by a long stretch. That said, the availability of drywall help is about as scarce out here as it is in your neck of the woods.

[electra225]

I wanted to make a contribution to the building of the shop. The wife and I got to talking and decided the best way for me to help and not get in the way was to paint the ceiling. So I went to Lowe's and got the paint and got to work. IT took almost the whole gallon of paint for the 400 square foot ceiling. Bare drywall and texturing mud soaks up lots of paint. The paint I used was Sherwin-Williams Infinity flat interior tinted to the same color we used in the house on the ceiling. I have some touch-up to do around the edges and there is drywall mud on the lid for the attic latter, so I need to clean that up, sand the edges, then it can be painted. I want to hang the ceiling fan while I'm at it. We recycled this fan from the kitchen when we changed the color of the faucet (we couldn't have a fan and a faucet that didn't match, now could we? ) This fan is brushed stainless look and will work fine in the shop. I'd thought about using gray outlets and switches so they would match the tile on the floor.

[William]

Wow, it sounds like lots of progress on the shop if you are painting and installing ceiling fans. Are the walls drywalled too? If all of that is done then the only thing left is the floor? I hope they show up on Monday and continue working.

Bill

[electra225]

Walls get pegboard, so they are not done. I noticed today that they have not installed the phone wire nor the TV cable. That may be a bit of a faux pas with the insulation sprayed in. That will be their problem. I may need the second coat of paint. I'll leave it dry overnight then see what it looks like.

[William]

My apologies, I forgot the walls get pegboard which is an excellent idea.

Bill

[Firedome]

Sounds like the shop is getting close... reading those specs it'd say it'd qualify as very nice living space!
We've always liked to use S-W "Ceiling White", a super white color that seems to be very reflective and really lightens up any
room. One trend I really don't care for is this current fad of painting every wall in every room in a house gray... so depressing and unimaginative. I like color in houses and on cars! At least you'd think they could paint 1 accent wall in a real color. Every home flipper or Reno show feature walls in gray these days it seems... boooorring!!

[William]

I agree Roger, I like to see some color too. Here in Michigan the sky is gray 75% of the time so I really want to see something cheery on my walls.

Bill

[electra225]

Remember, according to the HOA, the shop is not a shop. It's a casita, an extension to our home. It may sound a bit fancy, but it's really not. IT just can't be junky. At least it can't look junky to the neighborhood. How it looks inside is nobody's concern. We want to follow the theme of the house with the shop. Same colors, same shutters, that kind of thing.

[Firedome]

Tile roof, fully insulated with a/c, stucco walls, nice flooring, nice windows, attic storage... I'd call it "Casa del Consuelo" (what's Spanish for console? I have no idea!) for House of Consoles lol.

[19&41]

It's "consola".

[electra225]

I don't believe it.......

The stucco crew was here today and applied the stucco to the outside of the "consola". Yep, true story. There equipment and their mess is still here, but I'm not griping about the mess. The most heavenly mess I have ever seen!

The stucco doesn't stick to the sidewalks or anything like that. My understanding is that tomorrow they will come back and texture the stucco. Now it just looks like concrete on the side of a building. I love the look of stucco. Very southwestern and clean. They have to let the stucco breathe for a few days after it's textured. They will paint the facia and under the eaves, then do the roof, then paint the bottom, three colors, per the HOA. They have to dig the ditch for the electrical, run the TV and phone cables, then install the AC system and we will be real close. I need to put another coat of paint on the ceiling and hang the fan. We are for sure getting closer.....

[electra225]

I'm a little behind on my pictures. We'll start with attic insulation. It is sprayed in deep enough to completely bury the 2X6 trusses. I'm surprised it didn't make a bigger mess than it did.

[electra225]

Then the ceiling. Everybody has seen drywall before, but this is to document progress.

[electra225]

Now the stucco. The first picture (hopefully !) will be of the first layer of stucco. Not much to it, really. Looks like somebody covered the building with mortar. I'm not sure how they do big jobs, but my understanding is they have a machine that blows it on the sides, then they trowel it down. In this small job, they hauled the "mud" in with a wheelbarrow, then used big bats to smoosh it on, then troweled it down.

[electra225]

Now the textured stucco. They kinda splooshed it on like they were having a mud fight, then troweled it down. This is an amazing process that doesn't look like it should work. They people who do this are artists.

[electra225]

You may also notice that the insulation on the room is unfaced. There will be a layer of Tyvek over the unfaced insulation, followed by a layer of plastic. The plastic is there to protect the Tyvek from perforation by peg hooks. I'm not sure this is a code requirement, but it's a good idea. The walls will have pegboard all the way around. You may also notice they filled the electrical boxes with stucco. This is commonly done. I reckon it takes two seconds too long to fill the box with a chunk of paper before you apply the stucco. God forbid we not amortize our $300 an hour salary.......

But, to be frightfully honest, these guys work hard. Two guys did the stucco, one guy hauling and mixing stucco, the other guy putting it on. They get more done in an hour than I get done in eight hours. In fairness, they are 50 years younger than I am.

The guy who sprayed the insulation wore a face mask. One of those industrial ones that scares the dog. He should wear a fresh-air device of some kind. He was coughing and not feeling very good when he got done spraying this little job. He says he wears a fresh-air setup on big jobs. Breathing the fumes or debris from that stuff can't be good for you. He has as much insulation on him when he got done as he left on the shop. The insulation, once set up and dry, does not slough off particles or anything that can cause breathing issues.

[19&41]

Yow! eyebrows and everything! Looking mighty fancy. Good work too!