Oh my yep you read that right…weeks 4, 5, 6, and 7 all wrapped up into one video (coming soon)/blog. I did NOT anticipate this much work to prep the walls and the floor for paint. UGH!
Again, we have joined in with the One Room Challenge to hopefully finish up this room within a 8 week deadline. We are almost there and still so much to do.
WHAT IS THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE?
One Room challenge™ is a bi-annual event and currently in its eighteenth season. Many different design influencers participate in order to makeover one room over the course of 6 weeks (they’ve extended to 8 weeks this time) and share their process. You can check out the event and other participants here.
The Prep Work
Started off clearing almost everything out of the garage. As I now know from our Master Bedroom Makeover, drywall patching is very messy because once you patch you have to sand it smooth and it’s like dusting powdered sugar all over the place. So remove all or as much as you can is best.
Next I scrapped off all the big chucks from the previous drywall install. And there was SO MUCH chucks and “things” in the walls like staples?! What why paint over and not remove, they were not used for structural use. Ugh. Beyond the walls the low cinderblock wall is a complete disaster! When they added the concrete and some foam filler to adhere the blocks they were so so messy and didn’t clean or smooth it out so it dried in huge clumps and chucks all over the blocks.
I then decided after talking with someone at Home Depot for advice, who said that is the worst job he’s ever seen, which makes me think what else is a disaster in our house from bad contract work?!? But yea I decided to chip out the chucks of concrete with a chisel and hammer.
Also, the area that is close to the garage door on the ceiling where the drywall was falling down. We decided to rip down a portion of it and replace it. Not planned and a lot more work. But it does look a lot better and the popcorn ceiling is pretty much fully covered now.
And remember I said I wasn’t going to do the floors well we decided it would be best to pressure wash the old paint off now before putting up nice new paint and so yup more tasks to the list. The paint didn’t come off very easily, ended up having to use paint stripper and then power wash it all off. Edges are still messy but at least the majority of the paint is removed for now.
Now on to mudding. Pretty straight forward with the walls but definitely added more than I planned which means more to sand. Lol. As for the tops of the cinderblocks. Talking with the Home Depot guy he first suggested add a topper cap and cement that in but I would have to cut them because the lip is only about 3 inches and not 6 or 8 which is a standard cap size. So that means renting a wet saw and trying to learn how to do that but then he realized the drywall is touching the cinderblocks and because of that we couldn’t go that route because it would be too wet for the drywall and end up moldy. So I decided to just mud over the top of the cinderblocks. I know this is not the best solution but I think at least it will look nice and insure the drywall will stay dry and not mold because it will all dry completely like normal when mudding drywall. But because of the huge patches and it’s also been surprisingly humid lately, it’s taking the mud forever to dry. What would you have done? I would love to hear different ideas on how to patch the mess.
Next up will be to paint, add the storage solutions, & organize!
Check back next week for the FINAL REVEAL! Can’t wait to be done…almost there.
Cheers!
Chloe & Michael
