Home Renovation Phase 1 – Painting (Day 1)

So we decided to paint the interior of our house from top to bottom. This is the company we chose: http://proworkspainters.com/ 

(I’ll write a review when it’s all done.)

In order to pick the colours (since Stephanie doesn’t trust my sick design skills! *gasp*) we hired an interior designer to come in and choose a modern colour palette that satisfies us both. (Fun fact, she agreed with most of my suggestions, so suck it Stephanie! :P)

The designer also suggested removing the wainscoting since it’s a bit old fashion. (See below)

We were going to paint the wall and the wainscoting the same colour since one of the painters we interviewed suggested that’s a modern approach as well.

But the interior designer said it’s an easy job so might as well rip it off now rather than live with it. Fair enough right?

WRONG!!!

When one applies wainscoting to a wall they generally use some nails and some adhesive. Well the people that owned the house before us decided to use ALL THE ADHESIVE IN THE WORLD!

Exhibit A:

All of those brown spots are big globs of adhesive. Sometimes they are easy to remove and just chip right off with a sharp edge, other times they are stuck to the wall with a Herculean strength!

Look closer:

They ripped the drywall paper layer right off! One or two spots of that would be ok to repair, but the entire wall?! Forget about it!

We even tried using a heat gun to soften it up and scrape it off. This was an ok strategy, but Wayne is impatient and wanted this done before the painters were scheduled to come in.

Solution: Rip all the drywall off (well more delicate than rip – carefully cut out to be more precise) and replace it. After all drywall is pretty cheap and as long as you know what you’re doing then it should be a pretty fast job.

As long as you know what you’re doing…

So my plan:

• Cut the dry wall out from 4 feet above the floor.
• Buy 4’x8′ drywall sheets and install them horizontally. Thus minimizing the amount of cutting since theoretically they will fit flush with the 4ft opening.
• Have a beer.
• Have another beer
• Question all my life decisions that lead me to this moment.
• Install the new drywall.
• Take the old drywall to the dump.
• Seal up the corners and space between drywall sheets.
• Sand the crap.
• Drink another beer
• Be done by noon.
• Relax.

Show of hands – who thinks this all went to plan? Put your hands down stupid, it didn’t!

In-laws to the rescue!!!

Lucky my wife’s parents have done this kind of thing many times before. AND they have every tool anyone can possibly need for the job!

With their help we’ve done this so far:

(Removal is going smoothly!)

(Vapor barrier largely intact!)

(Studs marked with painters tape)

So for day one:

• All drywall sections are out.
• Managed to preserve corner beads.
• Went to home depot and rented a truck.
• Loaded aforementioned truck with drywall.
• Took old wainscoting and drywall to the community recycling centre. (The dump)
• Had zero beers. 🙁

Pro tips (from an amateur):

• Be careful to not cut the vapor barrier on the external walls.
• Be careful to not cut any electrical cables behind the walls.
• Use a dremel to cut drywall sections. (A knife takes forever! And the dremel can limit how deep you go. *giggity*)
• Mark your exposed studs with painter’s tape or pencil or blood or your tears (whatever you have handy). It will come in handy later when you install the new drywall.

Tune in next time for another episode of Wayne hates home-ownership!