a somewhat convoluted update

So, the drywall upstairs is nearly done. It looks super cool - if you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a couple of fuzzy cameraphone pics. I'll take better pictures soon. The drywall process is as follows:

-Stock (bring it into the house, an event which can take a whole day by itself)
-Hang (attach sheets of drywall to walls, cut around electrical outlets, lights, etc)
-Tape and mud (stretch tape over each seam, use joint compound to make a smooth wall)
-Mud some more (fill in big dents, make corners sharp, generally make walls)
-Skim coat (make it pretty - check for last imperfections, fill in)
-Sand (after all mud is really, really dry, sand it so it's perfectly smooth)

The upstairs is currently past its second mudding, and is slowly drying (the drywallers did the first and second coats all at once, so it takes a while to dry). In theory, they could come in tomorrow and skim coat, let that dry, and sand on Friday so that we could move upstairs this weekend.

But.

The windows in the two guest rooms (back and middle bedrooms) are kind of badly framed in, in that the framing for the windows juts out into the room a bit. So currently the drywall is cut around it, and it looks kind of icky. Ordinarily one would just fix this by hiding it with trim, but the framing is significantly wider than the windows themselves and we really don't want huge trim around two random windows! So the drywaller was over today, inspecting his crew's work and delivering some materials, and he suggested a solution: add another layer of drywall. It'll make everything even, covering the framing and going right to the window. It might not be the simplest solution (which would be, I don't know, ignoring it? Attempting to spackle?), but it'll be the best one. If we want it done right, this is what to do.

So now the plan is for the crew to come in and skim coat the rest of the upstairs. Either they or their boss will come in and hang, tape, and mud the two window-walls before the weekend, and the new drywall will be skimmed on Monday, with sanding on Wednesday. So far it seems like a good plan to me - not only can we take a break this weekend (poor Don has already worked 120 hours in this 80 hour pay period, with two more days to go!), but it'll give us extra time to clean up and move next week. I might even be able to get the electrician to come in and turn the electricity on up there!

The only drawback? I made this decision totally unilaterally - Don's still at work and has no idea. Eep! Let's hope he agrees with me - and is willing to pay for the extra sheets of drywall!