D-Day

Sorry about the random Alaska picture.

I took this picture the other day in "broad" daylight on a drive. This is what mid-day sun looks like in Interior Alaska in November. The Ram keeps assuring me that in a month, we'll start gaining daylight. I don't say it, but I think "that means we'll be losing daylight for another month ... that means in two months, we'll be back to this amount of daylight ... that means it's getting worse ... before it gets better ..."

Now I love Alaska, and every place you live, you take the good with the bad, right?

Well, this is the bad. Makes the good much better!

So with this weather we are dealing with two very big motivators. It's freezing cold in the Momplex, and there's no light. We need to get that ceiling insulated pronto, so we can put heat in the Momplex to make working conditions better. And we need to finish up the electrical so we can stop babysitting a fussy generator (it's no fun to care for a generator that doesn't want to run in our cold temperatures - kinda like a baby that doesn't want to sleep when you got dishes to do and dinner to cook). With electrical in, it won't be so dark inside the Momplex, and we'll be able to just plug tools in to use them! It's going to be great!

First battle to fight?

The ceiling. Trust me, you'd choose heat over electricity too. Heat comes first.

To get this ceiling insulated, all we have to do is hang the ceiling drywall, and then insulate the ceiling itself from the attic. We are so close ... I can almost feel my toes again!

We set up in the great rooms. It was a huge chore to move those drywall sheets in - 5/8" thick x 12 feet long - up a story, through a split entry .... you get the idea. I helped the Ram on a few sheets, and then he as nicely as he could, let me know that it would be more helpful if I just held the door open. #eatyourwheaties

My brother loaned us his drywall jack so we won't have to hold the drywall up while it's put into positioned and screwed in place. Thank goodness!

The drywall jack is amazingly easy to assemble and disassemble. It's pretty big, so for every room, you take it apart to get through doorways.

Without this drywall jack, I can most certainly promise you I'd either be out for the next three months with back problems, or I'd be competing in dead-lifting competition.

Like anything done overhead, on a ladder, in full down winter gear, you want to do as much prep work as possible on the ground first. It's a gravity thing - it's easier to draw on walls and floors than ceilings. So we measure the overall length of the first piece of drywall, and then also note the ceiling stud spacing so we can mark where screws go on the ground.

We went with 12 foot sheets of drywall for the ceiling because as hard as this big boy is to manuever, and despite being a full 50% heavier than an 8 footer, this is all easier than mudding another butt joint.

The sheet of drywall is marked for the cut length.

Then we use a square to make sure we are cutting square.

All you need is a utility knife.

Just follow the square with the utility knife, breaking the paper on the drywall front. You want to cut the front first (pretty side) and back second.

With the front cut, the drywall will just fold on the cut.

Then go back on the back and cut the back paper.

It's pretty easy to cut the drywall!

Then we take a rasp

And use it to smooth out the cut edge - just in case there is some spots where the drywall broke a little un-square. Bad drywall!

Then the drywall is moved carefully into the room. Now this is easier said than done because let's not forget the drywall is cut to the room's width.

The drywall is placed on the lift

The trick here is to angle one end down as you bring the sheet up. Think of it like fitting a shelf inside a bookshelf ... sometimes, you gotta do some maneuvering to get things in place.

Then you can focus on getting one end in place first.

And then just keep turning the wheel on the drywall jack to move the second end up.

Perfect fit, time for screws!

We are just using standard drywall screws

And a special drywall bit that puts the screw in just the right depth. Not deep enough and you have to go back and hand tighten screws to recess below drywall surface. Too deep and you puncture the paper and loose your holding strength.

And the drywall gets screwed up to the ceiling studs. Now one screw over head is not that big of a deal ... but 2000 square feet of screws on a ladder over your head at 20 below? No easy task.

Thank goodness lines are marked to make finding studs easier.

Electrical boxes are also marked in ceiling. See the X?

It's about to become an O. With a little help from this tool.

It is set to just cut the drywall, and follow the electrical box as a guide. No wires are harmed during this process.

Can't get any faster or better than that!

With the ceiling drywalled, the Momplex immediately started holding heat better. But it's still not warm in there, we need insulation over that drywall!!!

Have you done drywall before? What's your favorite part? Least favorite part? I'm thinking my favorite part is it's done!

D-Day

Drywall [2]