Drywall Dust -- Then Paint

The drywall work ended on Saturday. Well, the contractor completed hanging and finishing the wallboard before noon on Saturday. His work that morning consisted of final sanding all the joints. We knew the drywall portion of the project would be messy. But I didn't expect this much dust to travel throughout the house. I shut off the furnace before Jason began his work...and covered the heat registers so dust wouldn't be circulated throughout the house by fan [or find its way into the furnace and air conditioning coils].

Although he made dust, Jason did a wonderful job on the drywall. Below are a few pictures of the final sanding he did on Saturday.

We spent Saturday afternoon with brooms, the shop vac and damp mops....and I think we got 80% of the dust removed. But I expect that removing all of the remaining 20% will be a slow and frustrating effort....probably taking weeks.

Bobbie used the shop-vac to clean dust from the window edges.

By early Sunday we had most of the dust under control. At lest enough of it was removed that we could start painting [priming] the wallboard. We spent the afternoon with brushed and a little-bitty roller working our way around all the corners, outlets, windows with primer. With that done, Bobbie headed back to Livonia and left me to prime the rest of the walls.

Yesterday [Monday] was a long day. I bought special primer for new drywall from a local company [RepcoLite]. Its formulated to prevent the "fuzzing" that often occurs when you paint the scuffed paper surface of new wallboard. It worked wonderfully. But, like any primer, it soaked into the wallboard quickly. My calculations show that I covered about 1120 square feet of surface [walls and ceilings]. I used all but a little of FIVE GALLONS of paint. So coverage was about 225 sq ft per gallon. Not too bad, I guess.

I do know that I've never gone through 5 gallons of paint in one day before in my life....and hope to never do it again. But the rooms are primed and ready for paint. Some of that may start yet today.

Many of you know that much of the empty space inside my head is filled with lyrics from old rock songs. As I worked the roller over the ceiling and walls of these rooms I couldn't get Cream out of my head. Though I did modify the words slightly to better fit 3283:

" In a White Room ... with no curtains ... near the lake shore.."

Which of you olde Clapton fans know what "no" and "lake shore" should be replaced with? [Answer with a comment, please.]

 Pictures below:

Bedroom looking westerly.

Bedroom looking easterly.

Living room wall.

Bathroom looking south.

Laundry area.