Putting Up Walls

Alright - back to the bathroom!! Matt got around to re-building the walls in the bathroom last week, but we're just now getting around to writing about it. Blame our fun/busy long weekend for that.

Anyway - this wall rebuild went very quickly and easily thanks to Matt's handy skills. I'm a little foggy on the details, so bear with me if any of this seems vague... I was not really involved in this phase, but Matt doesn't have time to write about it so I'm giving it a try.

First, he shimmed the wall studs since the cement board is a tad thinner than the surrounding drywall. That involves nailing drywall shims to the wall studs so once you put the cement board on, the wall and cement are flush. Then he put up a plastic moisture barrier to protect against mold and dry rot. Next came cutting the cement board to size and drilling it into the studs to keep it in place. One good learning from last time: he put blue tape where the studs were while the walls were still open. That way, once the cement board is up, you don't need to guess where to drill your screws.

One of the features that I'm most excited about is the shampoo nook that we are building into the shower. The old shower had one that was functional, but not very attractive. This one is going to have some pizazz, so I'm excited! Matt was able to frame it out with cement, which wasn't too difficult since we're just reusing the existing wood-framed spot.

After the boards were up, he put a weird sticky (alkali-resistant, I'm told) mesh tape along the seams and then mudded over them with cement mortar. That formed a nice, seamless wall base that we will tile over later. We left that to dry overnight, then he sanded it down the next day. Then he put some spackle over the sanded area to smooth it out some. Apparently cement mortar is very gritty and looks bad if you don't spackle over it - who knew...

Finally, it was time to texture the walls to make them match the existing surroundings. That involves spraying on a thick aerosol and letting it set, then taking a putty knife and dragging it over the goop to match the "knock down" texture commonly found on walls. He used the same patching and texturing technique for the area around the old vanity (where drywall was ripped out during demo).

And with that, the walls were back up and it started looking like a real room. It's a lot less scary when there are walls - something about seeing the guts of your house is a little unsettling. And that also meant that I could help with the next phase... Painting!!