How Much Mud Does a Mudder Mud

The last six weeks we have been taping and mudding the garage wall, back hallway, West Wing hall, Pantry and Cleaning Closet. Yesterday we textured the walls.

The walls have received 4 coats of mud. Each coat goes wider that the previous one to smooth out the joints. After each coat has dried you sand the mud. The first coats you sand to get the chunks off. The last coat you sand it all smooth then wipe the walls down with a damp sponge to get all the sanding dust off. Then you are ready to start texturing.

 Garage wall

Pantry walls

Next step is to mix the mud and add water to make it the consistency of pancake batter. You use a drill with a paddle on the end of it to mix it up.

 All Bill's building drawings are about to be covered up. No building plans mean you just draw what you are going to build next on the wall.

 We are starting the texturing in the coat closet so we can decide exactly what style of texture we want. The beauty of texturing is that after you have put it on you can scrape it off, if it hasn't dried yet, and start over if you don't like it.

 Bill has to be a pretzel to get the ceiling of the small closet sprayed.

The part you put the mud in is called the hopper and it sprays our through a  nozzle. It is powered by the air compressor. This gets the texture on the wall without having to do it all with your arm muscles.

 After spraying we decided we (me) wanted the texture smooshed down and swooped. I use very technical terms. The amazing part is that when I say these words Bill knows exactly what it is I am expressing.  After 39 years of marriage he really does understand me.

 This is what the texture looks like before the smooshing and swooping.

 Going high in the pantry. This is extra storage for who knows what above the coat closet. We didn't know the Pantry walls would be 10 feet until the framers were finished. You can never have enough places to stick stuff.

 These are all the boxes of mud we have gone through in the last month and a half. That's 12 boxes of mud going up on the walls.

 

 It's amazing with just the texture on the walls they start looking finished. You don't see the drywall joints and everything is almost the same color. Now on to laying the tile floor, putting up the shelf supports, painting the walls, installing the shelves and the cabinets, and putting up the light. Then we will be ready to move in the freezer, stock the shelves and unpack almost all the kitchen boxes.