Kathy did most of the work finishing the drywall in the living room while I stressed out as everything when haywire for me all week long. (You can interpret “stressed out” as “threw temper tantrums”). The wall around the fireplace is brick with a thick layer of plaster over it — plaster that’s in bad shape and needed to be covered. I also needed to put up drywall around the fireplace to match up the edges of the drywall on the other two walls. All this would make more sense if I ever get my pictures organized and up on the site. [grin].
Anyway, getting the drywall up around the fireplace was a bitch because the screws had to go into the brick, which means you pre-drill with a masonry bit and then screw the masonry screws in with a drill. And my drill wasn’t cutting it. I ended up buying three different masonry bits and three different boxes of screws, renting a heavy-duty hammer-drill, etc. I think I went to Lowes and Home Depot a total of five times over the weekend. I also think I set a world-record for measuring and cutting the same piece of drywall over and over again without quite getting the right fit. Kathy also patiently cleaned up the adhesive gun after the tube of construction adhesive blew up and covered the gun. Kathy is a right-on gal.
So the drywall is up and I’m now on to mudding and taping the drywall, which I’m determined to do without losing my head at any point so that I do not alienate the right-on girlfriend who has helped me so much.