I'm actually doing it! (Drywalling the garage)

This photo is what I looked like AFTER coming inside from working hard in the garage and then taking a shower. I was cold and felt gross (for lack of a better word) and put on my cat onesie pajamas! (I was so cold for some reason, and I really felt the need to wear the onesie today)

My whole body ACHES but in a good way. It's kind of ridiculous to see my shins--I have bruises in all states of healing, and it kind of cracks me up. I don't have any medical conditions that cause bruising... I just happen to be extremely clumsy when working on home projects.

Mainly, I use the ladder to brace myself when working--and the rung above the one I'm standing on presses into my shins and leaves bruises. I have no idea how I get the bruises that are on my upper thighs, though!

For the past few days, I've been working in the garage on the drywall. I finished the insulation and moved onto installing drywall--I'd never actually hung drywall before, so this is totally new to me. I've been terrified of screwing the whole thing up, but I keep reminding myself that I'm a pro at using drywall compound to fix problems with the walls, hahaha.

The drywall job I'm doing in the garage is "good practice" as my brother, Brian, told me. This was after he looked at it, so clearly he thinks I should be a professional contractor by now--BAHAHA. He meant that doing it on my garage is better than practicing on a house ;)

Technically, you're "supposed" to hang drywall horizontally (although people do it both ways), but since our walls are exactly 8 feet tall, the drywall fits perfectly (it's 8 ft x 4 ft) when we hang it vertically. I did that for a couple of sheets, and then realized that the studs of the walls were just not even close to perfect. Hanging it horizontally made more sense to cover the defects of the studs.

So, I hung a couple of them vertically before switching to horizontal, so if you know at all about drywall, please don't point out all the flaws. Like I said, this is good practice! And once I tape and mud everything, it shouldn't be too noticeable, anyway. (Hopefully not at all noticeable).

Today, I finished the first wall--so now I just have three more walls and the ceiling to go! Hahaha, I feel like I'll be done in six years at this rate. Drywall is HEAVY, and I have such a hard time getting it in place. This morning, I made Noah and Eli come out to the garage to help me hoist a piece up and it helped so much! I'm going to use their help from now on when I have to do the top pieces.

This piece on the top right was super heavy and it helped so much to have the boys come out and help. Here is a before and after of that part of the wall:

Anyway, despite running into several problems with with the studs, with the drywall itself (I actually broke the first piece that I lifted!) and my own inexperience, the wall certainly doesn't look perfect. But I think it looks much better than before and I can't wait to tape and mud it so that I can paint it and it'll look finished!

The hardest part of all of this is trying to maneuver around the garage. We have a huge garage, so you wouldn't think it'd be a problem, but we have junk everywhere and it's hard to push things out of the way... bicycles, a huge lawnmower, a snowblower, a push lawnmower, the kids baseball equipment, Noah's punching bag, all of my tools, etc. It's amazing how much space it all takes up!

The wall that I finished today was one of the tougher ones (lots of space for drywall); the wall I plan on working on tomorrow is the one with the two-car garage door (on the right in the photo below), so there isn't a lot of wall space. I should be able to finish the entire thing tomorrow.

Here is a before and after of the entire wall... keep in mind, this is just the drywall part. I still have to tape and mud it, and then sand and paint it. I can't wait to get it done!

Even thought it's a lot of work, I really enjoy doing it! I open the back garage door so my squirrels can come visit (to beg for walnuts--I keep a jar there for them) and I listen to podcasts while I work.

I'll share more progress as I keep going on it :)