Drywall - Bathroom Phase 2.5

Drywall is not as terrible as I was expecting but also was a giant time-suck and I'm still not very good at it. When we inserted the new shower surround, we had to cut into the drywall to do so. And for months (literally - we did the shower surround in January and now it's the end of April) I lived with 2 inch to 4 inch gaps between the surround and the drywall. It wasn't the most attractive in the history of ever, but it was totally functional, which is totally my weak spot: if something isn't functional, it gets fixed. If something is functional but ugly, it languishes. Shower below: totally functional. pretty darn ugly 'round the edges.

As I mentioned in the post about my new window and door (!!!) I had to have the back wall patched before they installed the window (so they could attach the new drywall to my slightly older patch?). I actually started alongside the toilet, because I figured it was the least visible space in the bathroom, so if my first ever drywall patch looked terrible, it would be more-or-less invisible anyway. It went pretty okay, so I moved on to the back wall. (My friends A and M were very good sports about my joining the video call while patching drywall!)

The thing I learned in all of this is that it is WAY easier to patch something with drywall on both sides than it is to patch along an edge. My light-fixture patch is the best patch I did by far, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I could install a support wood block behind it, which kept all my edges fairly even. The shower surround patches are all much more uneven, though I was able to screw them into the studs, because there was no way I could figure out how to get a support in behind that would effectively brace things. I didn't take close-up photos of some of the mis-matches, but trust me - sometimes it was 1/4 inch or more. 

 

I ended up expanding the gaps to make them more square - and because I have learned that trying to cut anything much smaller than 4 inches wide doesn't work well. Once I made that change, the project actually moved fairly quickly. When I had tried to cut tiny 2.5in wide drywall strips, it had just been an exercise in frustration. Giving myself more room to work with made life a lot easier. (It may also have contributed to the depth fluctuations between my patches and the existing wall, though). 

But at any rate, I did get the whole job done. (I have an entire extra sheet of drywall in the garage!) And it's such a relief to walk into the bathroom and not have exposed studs anywhere. Did I realize how much that was bothering me? Nope. Do I realize now that it was definitely bothering me? Yep. There's still work to be done on it - I need to sand it down tomorrow, and probably attempt a second coat of mud in a few places. Then it's some orange peel wall texture and then PAINT!!!

Lookit how nice it looks even with the not-quite-dry mud! I'm very pleased with myself today!