Why is my husband afraid to come home from work?
Why has my well of quilting ideas temporarily dried up?
Why do my children run in the other direction when I come up from the basement?
Why am I now answering the phone: "Jen's house of anger, how may I help you?" (but only when my sister calls)
One word. Drywall.
A month ago, my husband and I decided to remodel and add a bathroom to our basement. He worked on framing and hanging sheetrock and then passed the drywall finishing torch to me. After all, I'm a quilter and therefore have a good attention to detail and passable motor skills and I'm a mild perfectionist (ok, mild to moderate). Who better to tape and mud (yes, that's right, I wrote "mud" like a real drywaller, trust me, I've earned it) the corners, seams and screws? How hard could it be to achieve smooth walls? I had no idea.
Every day I descend to the basement to spread on another coat of joint compound and my blood pressure begins to rise. And every day after 4 hours spent struggling to smooth joints, and slopping mud all over myself and the floor, and using language that I dare not speak of here, I climb back up the basement stairs and call my husband and vow that I will never, ever attempt to finish drywall again no matter what.
My sister said I should abandon the project and get someone in to finish it, but as my husband says "I'm in it now." God willing, tomorrow I will apply the final coat. Then I'm hanging up my taping knives for good. Sanding, priming and painting should be a walk in the park. I'm almost there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Oh, did I mention I'm also supposed to install a ceramic tile floor. Shudder.
I realize this may have been a somewhat gloomy post (welcome to my pain), so I've decided to include a gratuitous shot of our puppy Casey. I take no responsibility for doing this to Casey -- it was my kids -- I'm just the photographer. Although I must say, she doesn't look too worked up about her new look.
And by the way...
Check back here next week (the 22nd to be exact) for a chance to win a prize. I'm participating in a Quilters Newsletter blog tour to promote their Best Christmas Quilts 2012 special issue. I'll be writing about the projects that I designed for the special issue and picking one lucky reader to win a fabric bundle! Can't wait!