DIY 3

 Sometimes I learn after the fact

    Still our first house.

    The unfinished lower level is studded out by brother in law Bobby. . A guy I knew from working at the spinning plant offered to wire it for $50. It passed inspection, so he must have known what to do.

    Next came the drywall.

    I had never hung drywall.  

    And I am cheap.

    I would hang a section, say by a door or window, and cut it to fit.  Then I would use the cut sections somewhere else.  Sometimes 2 or 3 of them together.  And over a door or window is maybe not correct.  I hung full 4 x 8 sheets first, then windows, then I pieced together door tops.

    I don't know if drywall screws were around then, but I hand nailed every piece of drywall.

    I put a nail every 4 inches.  In an 8 ft section of drywall, that is 24 nails per stud, if my math is correct.  And I nailed on every stud.  There were 4 studs.  I put up about 96 nails in a sheet of drywall.

    I did one wall like this and I think it may have been Bobby again, but somebody looked at it and said I should have 4 nails per stud.  They might have used an expletive in describing my efforts.

    No wonder I was going back to the lumber yard so much!  

    Once that was pointed out to me, I cut back and did 4 on each stud.

    We had a window where the header was a little warped.  Low income housing is not necessarily big on quality.  

    I found a piece to put over the window and started nailing.  It must have been  3 ft by 2 feet.

    I put in 48 nails.  Every time I put a nail in, another place would pop up.  I pounded until my arm was sore.

    Finally finished, I called a man to come in and tape and mud the room.

    He came in, and I could tell by the look on his face he had never seen workmanship like this before!  His mouth fell open.  He was speechless.  All he could do was stare at the wall that had 9,000 nails in it and the window area that looked like it had a severe case of acne.

    "You want this all mudded and taped?" I remember him asking.

    I said yes.

    He paused, then looked around again and said, "You can't afford to have this mudded and taped."  

    He then suggested I panel the walls with all the nails and just mud and tape the ones done almost correctly.

    I know the drywall on those walls will never come down.  

    The house could blow away in a tornado and those walls, with the 28,433 nails will remain intact as they fly through the air.

    But I always wondered how a compass would work in that room.  Would it point due north?  Or just spin in circles.

    I never experimented to find out.

Peace and Love