Looking more and more like a house

In a little bit, I have some comments about comments, but first I can report that having interior walls that you can't see through sure makes a framework look a lot more like a house. Today the wallboard hangers hung their last bit of sheetrock and turned it over to the finishers. That's the crew that tapes the joints between panels and spreads the "mud" - i.e. plaster - over the tape, nail depressions, cracks, and any other uneven places, and makes the wall look nice, flat, and smooth. It takes about three to four applications of mud to reach that final result. In between applications, the mud has to dry and be sanded smooth, before more is applied. Then a coat of primer has to be applied be before the wall can be painted.

In the picture to the right, one of the finishers is applying mud in the downstairs den near the little hall that leads to the bathroom. You can see the joint about chest high that was taped earlier and has already dried, as well as some other spots that were patched earlier and are dry.

The man to the left is working in the bathroom and standing on a mud can between the shower stall on the right and the spot where the toilet will be installed on the left. The darker wallboard is supposed to be water resistant and is used in the baths and kitchen to keep water damage repair costs to a minimum.

Drying is affected by weather and humidity. In rainy weather, that can sometimes be a problem, as it was in our first house construction on College Circle in 1979. There was a good bit of rain that summer, and at one point it took the sheetrock two weeks to dry.

At the time of my writing this paragraph, however, with the temperature in Athens officially 100 (95 here in Kenney Ridge), rain and humidity do not appear to be a problem. So, the finishers expect to be done by the middle of next week. By then we also expect to see brick masons well on their way to getting a brick veneer on three sides of our new house.

Regarding comments on this blog, yesterday I wrote a comment on my own blog post of 29 June and made two assumptions about the process. First, I discovered that you must indeed click on "Publish" if you want to post the comment. There is also a place to click if you want to "Subscribe by email." I assumed that this would get you notified when a new post was published, but that's not the case. When I click there, it gets an email sent to me when a comment is made, so I don't have to keep checking for comments. It might also get one sent to you, but I'm not sure about that.

At any rate, now you know how to comment, if you want to let me know what you think, make a correction, or whatever. I'll be glad to hear from you.

Next week I'm sure I'll have more to report. Adios.  --oc