One Room Challenge Week 4: We Survived Peak Dust

Remember how I said I’d put dowels in the wall for the picture rail? Well that’s the first thing I did since last week’s post. It really wasn’t hard!

But it made a HUGE mess. I closed the door and walked away from this.

So is that peak dirt? Not quite yet. I had 3 more things to do before I thought it worth it to actually clean the room:

Sanding the window woodwork smooth. This woodwork is a great match to what the house originally had. It’s also unprimed poplar and comes out fuzzy after you prime it, so giving everything a good sanding is a necessary step. And speaking of which, doesn’t this look great now?? We got the casings up at the same time as we made the bookcases.

Then, sanding out the joint compound. So remember how I said I ran into some issues? Well, what happened was I went with paper faced corner bead because the Internet said the wider flanges help with flawed drywall installation. And because I made a last-minute change to square up one of them and the other has a badly warped stud in it, there were definitely flaws to work around. It didn’t work as expected. Where I had voids behind the corner bead there were bubbles in the paper tape and in some spots the whole thing squished if I pressed on it with my finger. So, I desperately came up with a solution that didn’t involve ripping everything out and starting over. I cut out the worst bubbles and stabbed holes where the voids were and filled it all with spray foam. Miraculously, this did what I hoped. Everything stiffened up and the foam didn’t push things apart or create unsightly bulges.

As of tonight, I’m JUST ABOUT done fussing with the drywall. One more time sanding it. I’m not even going to bother to clean until tomorrow at this point.

And the last thing that made a mess: the pad sander. I had to finish off the 2 fixed shelves in place, which I guess could have been avoided had we planned this job perfectly. I had to do another 8 adjustable shelves, but these I did outside. I have wood nosings mounted onto plywood shelves. We ripped the wood down to one inch, then glued and screwed it with the cut side facing up. After that I could sand the cut side flush with the rest of the shelf, and that will hopefully make them look like they’re all one piece. I still don’t recommend using pad sanders indoors though.

And the rest of this: Tito and I, and a whole bunch of the stuff that belongs in the front bedroom, have been crowded into the guest room. And a single bed.

Now I’m back here and sleeping well, but the only socks and underwear I can wear are what’s been washed since we blocked off my drawers. So, lots of things are out the window. Anything social. Grocery shopping. Refraining from using loud power tools at night. We’re on the cusp of a tidier work site though.

And if you want to see more room makeovers, click here to see other participants in the One Room Challenge.