Mudding in a Drought

I don’t have the statistics to prove it, but I’m fairly confident that the slowest part of building a house is finishing the drywall. It is agonizingly slow. Noel is tired of the monotony of it. Since the ceiling is 10 feet high, that is about 8,800 sq feet of drywall and about a half mile of tape. It’s looking great though. Paint should start on Tuesday – primer at least. The primer is tinted the same color as the paint, so hopefully we will only need one coat of paint after the primer.

We need to back up to the last blog though. The drywall is all up and taped and mudded at least once – some places are mudded twice.

We have central air! Thank you Aaron! He and Noel worked together getting the air in; if that wouldn’t have happened, I think we would have much less done with the mudding. We are in a drought with mostly 100 degree days for the last couple weeks, with no relief in sight. There is just no way that Noel could be up on the scaffold for long, mudding ceilings in 100+ temps. This could be a short post because really that is all that has happened since the last post in house progress. Noel has been working at least 12 hour days, so a lot has happened. It just looks the same and we are getting excited about paint coming soon.

The deck is completely done, and we even installed a hot tub which is amazing. We had planned to get one with some money we had set aside, and then we priced hot tubs and decided maybe not. But we found a used one at an excellent price in great shape. Did you know you can actually get a hot tub that costs $39,000?! We did not know that. But even the small, less elegant ones were far more than what we planned. So, we were excited to find this one. Thanks to friends, Steve & Tim, for the back-breaking job of getting it on our trailer. It was scary to watch Noel put it up on the deck with the forks on the tractor. He was very safe, but I imagined all kinds of catastrophes. It went very smoothly, and we are enjoying it daily.

But besides the house, we have gotten visits with family which was exciting. Jeremy, Anna, and kids came out for most of a week. We had a lot of fun with them on Lake Norfork with a pontoon and tube, trips to the lake, tractors and taking trees down with the mini, and lots of hot tub time. It was “cozy” with 7 people in our little shop apartment, but it was just fine, and we are ready for any other company that wants to come. We headed to Kansas City and all the family was together for just a short time. Noel got to go with his boys to a soccer game and had so much fun.

The next week, my cousin Brian and his wife, Heather, came for a day visit. It was great to see them. My dad is still talking about those 2 visits. More of you need to do that. =)

So next on the agenda after paint is installing all the light fixtures. The electricity is all there just ready to be connected to the actual permanent lights. Then will be the very long process of flooring. The bathroom floors and showers will be tiled, as well as my office, and the entry from the garage, which is also the laundry room, Noel’s office and a small bathroom. I’m going to Kansas City for a week to babysit Zak & Bekah’s kiddos, so I’m hoping a couple floors will be done when I come home.

After that it is hardwood floors. It is bare wood but will have to be laid, sanded, and finished. We are actually going to keep it the natural hickory color so no stain will go on it – just the finish. At that point, we are moving in! I plan to be in my office within a couple weeks, but the rest will happen in September.

Once we are in, we will disassemble our shop apartment, and Noel will have room to build the kitchen cabinets. The bottom cabinets have to be first, along with bathroom vanities because our granite is ordered and we are in line to have it installed pretty much as soon as we are ready.

Making cabinets is no easy task. These will be made from wood that Noel has cut down, run through the sawmill, and dried in his kiln. So, before he builds the cabinets, he will have to build the kiln. He made one at our last house, so at least he has the knowledge and it’s not a fancy contraption that will take a lot of time. It would be nice if he could make it now and begin the drying process, but there is no room until we are moved into the house.

By Christmas, we should have all cupboards done. And hopefully doors. That is one that has been off my radar but mighty important! Noel is making all of our doors; it will save us a lot of money and isn’t a difficult build. But it’s the same thing as cabinets – the wood will need to be dried.

I’m beginning to think my title makes no sense, but I hate titles. I first thought I was clever since there is no mud in a drought, but. . . it’s as creative as I can be on this Saturday morning. Just know there is a lot of mudding still going on – hopefully only for 2 more days. And we are definitely in a drought -they said on the news it is the worst since 1980. I don’t remember having so many 100+ degree days in one summer, let alone in one month. It’s a little more worrisome living in the woods. We have a burn ban, and everything is brown. We don’t have a lawn yet, so I guess that is the blessing, that we didn’t lose the lawn! But our farmers and our woods definitely need the rain.

Our next blog is going to be exciting! Walls will be painted, maybe a little something hung on the wall just because I can’t wait any longer, and maybe some tile on the floors. Exciting times!