Apr 09 2009
Drywall Work Not for Profit also Not for Fun
Drywall work was heavy lifting and very hard work even when I was younger, i.e., in my teens and twenties, when I got PAID to do it, back in the 1960’s, and I made $5.00 an hour!
Back then we just called it “sheetrock” which is a brand name of the product manufactured by U.S. Gypsum. For all I know, forty years ago it may have been the only product on the market.
Today, my drywall work is limited to my own little projects, which included finishing off the basement about five years ago. Drywall work as a home project means I also do the taping, texturing and painting. Ummm, wait; the wife does most of the painting.
Now, at age 62, any “not for profit” drywall project is a major undertaking and I do NOT find it to be fun anymore. (I am still thinking of myself as being “retired.”)
We recently decided to improve the insulation factor of the garage since we always leave our dogs in the garage when we leave the house in winter time, even during the day. An overnight trip during winter means a really cold night for the dogs, often there is snow and LOTs of wind. A kennel in the garage confines them but provides little additional protection against the cold.
We decided the answer would be fiberglass insulation and drywall throughout the garage, with a suspended ceiling that would hold in the warmth of the daytime temperatures as well as the ambient heat from the house wall that is shared with the garage. (As an added benefit, keeping the garage warmer ought to cut down on the cost of keeping that part of the house warm.)
For me this has become a major undertaking, and I have found that cutting the drywall sheets into smaller sizes than 4′ x 8′ is necessary for the “higher up” work on the walls which are ten feet tall. I began the project during the winter months and found the going pretty slow because it was too damn cold out there most of the time. This is Montana, after all. With April and warmer temperatures I made some pretty decent progress and also feel like the pressure to get this completed is eased quite a bit. I just need to be finished before cold weather sets in, which means September here in the far white north.
I also have other priorities now that spring is here, including yard, garden, trees and trout.
Hey Doug:
I find your blogs interesting because my husband and I are retired, also. Montana sounds pretty tough. We live in the Northeast but your state sounds even colder.
Glad you’re making a place for your dogs. They really need to be kept warm in the winter.
Would you be interested in putting my blog on your blogroll? I’d like to put yours on mine. I remember a lot about the 60’s so, we have that much in common. I even remember sheet rock.