Basement #2

I spent Thursday and Friday last week painting in the basement.  I got a lot done, but it still feels like I'm nowhere near the end.  It is a large room, and the walls were not in great shape.  There were lots of holes to patch up before I could start painting.  I have learned how to float drywall and patch up holes that spackle won't fix.  Here's some pictures of on hole that I fixed.  I had tried to patch it up with spackle, but it didn't work.  The spackle would not stick.  I asked a few questions at Lowe's about how to fix it, and got what I needed.  I bought joint compound and non-adhesive drywall joint tape.

I applied a small amount of joint compound to the problem area and them applied the joint tape.  I applied another layer of point compound on top of the tape and let it dry over night.  Then I sanded the area smooth.

I prefer joint compound instead of spackle now.  It is smoother, and less messy.  This is a picture after the first coat of paint.  It still needs another coat, but it looks better.

 Our house had popcorn ceilings throughout when we bought it.  We hired a painter to remove most it and repaint.  We didn't have him do any work in the basement, and the stairway still had a popcorn ceiling.  We removed it ourselves with a putty knife.  James scraped off the areas that I could not reach.  This is not something that you should do yourself is you think our ceiling might have asbestos in it.  We knew ours did not.

 Here's the mess that it left behind.  See all those little white specks?  It took a while to vacuum that all up!

 Some pictures of the painting in progress

 I should have some time to paint next Friday and Saturday.  I hope to have one coat of paint up everywhere by the end of next weekend.

Grout Repair

Some of the grout in our guest bathroom had been cracking.  We had the tile installed less than a year ago, so needless to say, I'm not happy at all that it is already in need of repair. Here are a couple of pictures of the cracked grout.  What you're looking at is where the tile on the floor meets the tile on the wall.

The crack is more obvious in the top picture.  In the lower pic there is a crack in the grout near the door frame.

Here are the supplies that I needed.  At Lowes, I bought sanded caulk (AKA grout caulk) and a little tool to smooth the caulk out.  A got a piece of chipped grout from the bathroom and put it in a ziplock bag and took that to Lowe's with me.  The sanded caulk comes in different colors, and I wanted to get the closest color match that I could.  The sanded caulk feels a lot like grout when it dries, but it is kida rubbery like regular caulk.  We already had the caulk gun and screwdriver pictured.

I used the screwdriver to chip the damaged grout away, then I got a hand vac to clean up the mess.  Then I applied the sanded grout.  It was a messy job.  I kept two old washcloths and and old towel within reach to clean up mistakes as I went.  I used nail polish remover to clean up any smudged caulk, and it worked nicely. Here's the finished product:

I had to remove the air vent while I worked, but it just slips in and out.