Home Improvement Roundup

Today on Home Improvement Roundup: Drywall and Spackling. It's a continuation of my closet/hot water heater remodel. I have a lot to remodel on the whole house so I figured I would create Home Improvement Roundup to talk about it. No matter how boring it is.

Anyway, last weekend and some this week, I went back to work on the closet. Steve installed my new light and lightswitch which I love. Finally, no more pulling the little chain which hasn't worked anyway in about two years. Plus, we finished laying the floor. This was no easy task since whoever built the house obviously didn't own a level or a tape measure. It looks beautiful with the light shining on it. Kind of reminds me of an Italian villa or at least what I imagine one to look like.

Now we are ready to spackle to get ready for the paint. I have become quite adept at spackling. Goodness knows I get enough practice since they didn't install the drywall properly and left gaps that an elephant could walk through. By the way, drywall should be layed horizontally across the studs not vertically unless you are using one piece to finish the whole wall. I saw a new drywall tape being used that I really wanted to use so I figured this was as good as time as any. The name of the company has escaped me, but if you see a yellow plastic mesh tape in the drywall aisle, that's the one. It self-adheres to the wall, though it can be pulled off if you mess up. Because of this, you don't have to apply a bed of spackle which saves you money and time. Love it so far. These seams are so much better and went so much faster than my previous ones. You can see the seam with the tape and the seam after the spackle was applied in the pics below. Remember when you are laying the spackle that you should apply a thin coat, but thick enough so that you no longer see the mesh. You should also go about 1" past the sides of the tape. Once it dries, it will turn completely white then you will be ready to sand. A good spackler/drywaller will have to sand very little. When sanding is complete, run a damp paper towel across the seams to get the dust off then you are ready for paint.

Next week on Home Improvement Roundup- Birdproofing your house. As we all know, I keep getting birds in my chimney. We'll see what I can do to remedy this situation. Until next time...