Reassembling the Hallway Upstairs

Today Colin continued working on the hallway upstairs.  This weekend we started taping and mudding the drywall we hung last weekend, and we are getting the top of the stairs ready to nail in the wood ceiling.  It dawned on us that we have not had a proper ceiling at the top of the stairs in about five years or more.  We took down the horrible ceiling tiles and then realized that the roof was leaking, so we decided to wait until we replaced the roof.  That took a while.

Colin also finished demolishing the old archway that was between the hall and what we are now calling The Blue Room, since we are thinking of painting it Benjamin Moore Mill Springs Blue. 

 All of this demolition has left us with a lot of plaster and lathe and garbage.

Little Helper

When Alistair heard that Colin was going to hand drywall today, Alistair wanted to help.  We're not sure he knew what drywall was, but he was more enthusiastic than Colin was to hang the drywall.  We were on the phone with Grandad when Colin needed help with the first sheet.  (Lucky Grandad was able to hear the whole thing.)  Alyssa screwed in the first couple of screws, and then Alistair wanted to help.  He put the screws on the magnetic tip of the screwdriver and wanted to help Colin drive them in.

Later in the afternoon, Alyssa sneaked up to help Colin with the sheet at the top of the stairs.  (We have been looking at that exposed lathe for literally several years.  After we tore down the ceilling, we realized we had a leak in the roof, so there was no point putting up new drywall that was going to get wet.  It is good to see it finally covered up.)  After Colin drove in the first coupld of screws, we here this little "I want to help," as Alistair climbed the stairs.  He passed Colin screws.

While Colin was working hard hanging drywall, Alyssa and Alistair were decorating Valentine's Day cookies (see our other blog).  As it was getting dark, Alyssa and Alistair went upstair to let Colin know there was extra frosting that would be a yummy dip for pretzel rods.  Alistair wanted to help again.  As we tried to get him back downstairs, he replied, "I'm busy now.  I'm cleaning up this big mess you made."

Goodbye Door

Colin attacked the door at the top of the stairs.  When we first bought the house, this door was painted a light purple.  The door was the interior door for the upstairs apartment, so we don't need it anymore.  We couldn't believe how wide and open the top of the stairs is without the door.  We haven't figured out what exactly what to do with the transition, but like everything else, we will.