I have started to tackle the garage makeover, and the very first thing I needed to do was repair the unfinished drywall. Because there is so much junk in the garage, I decided I would tackle it wall-by-wall.
I mudded the joints and all the nail holes, first using the same hot mud method that I used in the MoneyPit 1.0 kitchen, and then with premixed joint compound (when I ran out of powdered setting compund.)
I am pretty sure I am going to stick with hot mudding from now on, since the premixed stuff was too thick and was a pain to work with. I like diluting my own joint compound.. call me old fashioned, but I have learned that I can eyeball to a perfect working consistency and make it in batches depending on how much area I need to mud. Plus you can choose either 90, 45, 15 or 5 minute set times. The premixed stuff takes FOREVER to dry. Supposedly it is harder to sand, but I haven't had a problem. Maybe I'm just getting really good at having nice flat seams! One thing I did do differently was buy an inside corner tool!
CHANGED.MY.LIFE.
Unlike the MoneyPit1.0, where I hand molded both interior and exterior corners using flat trowels, I had such long seams I decided to spend the $9 and try it out. IT was AWESOME! Even in tricky inside corners where three seams met, it made nice smooth lines:
Once the walls were taped, mudded and sanded I looked through my paint stash to see what I could use to paint the walls. I came upon 4 gallons of minty green paint (the same leftover paint i used on my test cabinet that became my workbench.) Since half were flat and half were eggshell I decided to mix all four gallons together to get one standard finish.
When I cracked some of those cans open they were not too pretty. At least a few of the cans hadn't been opened in nearly 15 years (based on the dates on the labels):
Fortunately they mixed together fine and went up without a problem but the pale green was awful. (I sorta knew it would be, but I was using the free paint instead of buying primer.)
For a final color I bought Martha Stewart's Sisal (which happens to be the exact same color as Benjamin Moore's Manchester Tan.)
It is one shade lighter than (and actually shares the paint chip with) Bleeker Beige (aka Martha Stewart's Buckwheat Flour.) That is the color I used in the bathroom and stairwell. I guess I'm not very daring.. or else I know what I like!
I love how it is looking. Tonight I am going to sit down and plan the new garage layout.
Stay tuned..