Drywall - Curved wall and general cleanup

Jan 30-Feb 3, 2012
Last weekend I covered the first guest bedroom with sheetrock and managed to get everything done except the outer curved wall.  The work turned out to be easier that I recall from times in past renovation projects.

I had concerns about doing this single-handely and whether the physical toll would worth the effort but surprisingly it had less impact on me than I anticipated.  I had far less aches, pains and stresses than on some of the other projects here and in the past!

I'm knocking on wood that I decided not to sheetrock the ceiling!

Curves
Early in the week I had to figure out how to best accomplish accurate measurements on the curved walls for outlet openings given that measurement lines can shift when transitioning when a curved line transitions into a flat line.  I came up with a pretty decent method of getting measurements right.  I took a scrap strip of sheetrock, pressed it into the curved framing and then marked the placement of the outlet boxes.  It worked pretty well!  Sure enough, when laid flat, the measurements moved by a quarter inch.  A quarter inch is a hefty difference when cutting holes in sheetrock.

On Wednesday I applied my theory on the one last remaining panel from the weekend's supply.  With the outlet opening measured and remeasured 20 times, with bated breath I cut the hole and pushed the sheet into the curve.  The outlet opening lined right up.  Success!!

It may not look curved but it is!

Sometimes it's the smallest of things that give you the greatest sense of accomplishment!  I'll install the other three panels over the next weekend.

General cleanup
With that challenge out of the way, I spent the rest of my weeks lunch hours and evenings cleaning up the place in general, moving things around to reduce the visual clutter and vacuuming the concrete floors to reduce construction dust.

Much better now!! 

The entry closet
Round houses tend to create creative challenges for architects.  The entry closet could not be put next to the entry door as it would cut into the two bedrooms located on either side of the actual entry hallway.  The designer did a great job of incorporating one into a small space between the two guest bedrooms in a section a the end of the closet wall that separates the two rooms.  It's as close as it could be to the entry door.

Funny what you suddenly think of....  As I write this thinking back to before demolition....I realize now the previous owners had completely eliminated the only entry closet by converting it to shelved space with five or six shelves.  Come to think of it, there were any closets in the public spaces.

Before

No place to hang coats and such....except perhaps the bedrooms.  The other spaces that could have been considered closets at one time were taken up by the water heater and AC systems.  I think that would have driven me nutz over time!  

Anyway, with some last remaining fuller sized scraps, I closed in it's interior.

Odd spaces lead to odd spaces!