My compass can't find north

A lack of knowledge never prevented me from doing something

     This is a continuation from yesterday.

     Once the soffit was up, it was time for drywall.

      I was young.  I was not knowledgeable.  I bought drywall.

     There was a knee wall of about 56 inches in the basement.  Drywall comes in 4 x 8 sheets, so no matter how I cut it, I would be wasting a lot of drywall.

     So I cut, and nailed, and cut, and nailed.  I thought I did a good job.

     Ok, so I had one piece over the window that did not lay flat.  I put some extra nails in it.

     I only had two walls to go....full size walls, no cutting needed.  

     I called my brother in law and mentioned I had accomplished much, but it took a long time to nail.

     He said it should not be that hard.....I only needed nails about every 16 inches.  That hit me like a slap from a pretty girl that I just pinched.

     I put nails every two inches.  Carefully measured out.  Two inches.  Except above the window.  That 12 x 24 section had 46 nails.

     There was so much iron in the walls, a compass would spin around, totally confused about which way was north.

     I finished the rest of the drywall, nailing every 16 inches...or so.

     Then I called a drywall guy for an estimate on taping and mudding.

     He stood in the basement,  and just kept turning around, as if he had never seen a drywall job like this before.

      I used every scrap.  And every nail I could get.

      After what seemed like an hour, he said the obvious.

      "I have never seen a drywall job like this before,"  and he spun slowly around again.

      "You can't really afford me to mud and tape this.  There are too many nails," he said, still spinning in wonderment.

      "This wall over here I can do..and that one over there.  That will be fine.  But these other walls......" his voice trailed off, I would like to think in appreciation of my devotion to detail.
      I asked what I should do.
      "Paneling.  Paneling.......that is the only thing you can do," and he made one more turn.
     So panel it we did.  On the "good" wall we hung wallpaper that resembled an abstract forest.  The room had a homey, funky kind of appeal.
      We ended up with a family room and two bedrooms in the lower level.  It took us some time, and we did it in phases, and I learned from my mistake.
      But compasses never worked down in the family room....like the drywall guy, they would just spin in circles.