Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated

It's been over a year, but I'm back with an update!

We have made progress with the kitchen walls.

My boss (kind of a surrogate dad with my own living across the country) had suggested many years ago "wet sanding" joint compound because it will make less mess.  Well, I tried it when we first started putting up the drywall and yes, we didn't have to contend with dust.  But it left the joints looking like they had melted.  Not really the look we were hoping for.  And so I got frustrated and ignored it, and we've been living with a kitchen with plywood counters and bare drywall with some parts mudded and others not.  We haven't wanted to put the new counters in until everything was painted, and then the backsplash has to wait for the counters, and then we move on to the floor, and finally replacing all of the trim.  A lot has been waiting for these stupid walls and ceiling to be done.

I came to a realization this fall.  That I wanted and expected the drywall joint/tape stuff to a) be perfect and b) not make a mess.  Reviewing an insurance estimate at work (I work for an attorney who focuses on property insurance), I realized people pay a *lot* of money to professional tapers for a "level 5" finish.  I'm not a professional taper, nor do I have the money to pay one.  So I channeled my inner Elsa and Let it Go! and moved forward with the sanding, etc.  We set ourselves a target of getting the paint done by this coming Saturday (really, before, because we're having a party on Saturday).

We tried a sanding block that attaches to the shop vac to reduce what gets kicked around.  It's an old house and nothing is straight; not to mention the drywall joints weren't all fitted very well (use that channel at the edges of the boards!  Don't butt two middle cuts together!  Learn from our mistakes!), so I had to go with smaller tools all around, the sanding block included.  It was just too big to get a good result.  

Cutting the mesh sanding screens in half, and then folding that half in half worked well for just using my hand.  But wear gloves so you don't tear your hands to shreds after 4-5 hours of sanding.  I kept the shop vac running the entire time, with the brush attachment.  I'd sand a small section and then vacuum it up, being sure to sand the actual wall, too, because the drywall holds onto the dust really well, and I think that's a lot of what ends up traveling later and getting everywhere else.  Every sanding session ended with a good vacuuming, and while I showered (get undressed standing in the tub before you start the water), ~D swept up the floor to get whatever the vacuum missed.  We managed to keep the dust from going too far out of the kitchen, no drapes over the doorways necessary.

On the whole, I generally did 2-3 coats, depending on the state of the joint.  I learned how to feather out the uglier joints more so, while not perfect, they look a lot smoother than the coat before.

Sunday, we painted.  ~D got to do the entirety of the ceiling, cutting in and rolling.  We used Valspar's ceiling paint that we had gotten a few years ago.  It ended up a little chunky, so we've got a few flecks scattered around, but we'll pick them off when we go back to get our touchups done.  It did need two coats, but it's really hard seeing (off-) white paint on white drywall.  I cut in the walls and ~D did the rolling.  We used Behr's top of the line paint with the built-in primer and, except for a few places where the roller needed a bit more paint, it really did a decent job in its single coat.  

There are some ugly seams on the ceiling, but you'll see in a minute why we didn't care about those.  You can also see at the tip of the top right a hole.  That is from the waterfall we experience from the upstairs bathroom last spring.  ~D had the *audacity* to try to turn off the pipe under the bathroom sink.  I mean, really.  How dare he try to replace the vanity?!  The pipe broke in the wall as he was turning the cutoff.  We learned that Home Depot is open on Easter.  Yay.  We had to replace the entire supply line to the bathroom, and that hole is where our shutoff valves for the bath/shower are.  We got an access panel to cover that up.  

I also took about 10 minutes to get the baffles and trim in/on our recessed lighting.

We toasted our success after the kids went to bed with a pretty meh hard cider that we've had kicking around.  

Next step:  replacing the beams from the old wooden drop ceiling that we saved.  While I sanded the walls, ~D spent his time sanding the beams.  They are hemlock which had been stained a dark reddish mahogany-ish color.  We liked the lighter color post-sanding, but it needed a little bit of depth.  So I stained them with "golden pecan" Minwax to coordinate with the golden oak cabinets, and gave them a satin-finish poly coat.  The kitchen still smells despite fans and even leaving windows open on a cold, late-fall New England night.  C'est la vie.

Last night's project was getting the beams in place.  Ouch.  My shoulder still hurts.  Getting full kitchen-width beams in was pretty exciting, especially when we realized some of them were a little too long now.  Paint touch ups are more dire now.  ~D premarked where the lag bolts would be going, using his stud finder and also a small drill bit to find the edges of the joists, so we could get everything centered for safety and straight for aesthetics.  After the first one was in, we were smart and preset the lags before hoisting the beams up.  Trying to retrieve dropped bolts while balancing at the top of a ladder holding a heavy hunk of wood is not fun.  Twice.

Right now, we just have two lags for each beam, but we'll run a third one through the middles tonight for some added security.  Laser lines FTW.

The night was still young, we got the kids to bed, and went to the next stage:  shelves on the walls.  We got some brackets from Ikea a long time ago, the Ekby Bjarnum ones, with black shelves to fit.  These were super easy to install, especially the ones that went straight into stud.  The ones that didn't go into stud got SnapToggles.   They seem pretty secure, though two ended up breaking during installation and the only way to deal with them is to push them through into the stud cavity.

Last on the honey-do list for pre-party kitchen renovations was the pendant lights.  When we planned for 6 recessed lights, I also wanted some small ones on a separate switch for the evenings when we don't need the full set of lights on.  So we got a couple of cheap pendants from Home Depot and planned to install them somewhat high, as the kitchen's not big enough to put an island in.  The first one took some work, as it didn't come with instructions.  But we worked it out and the second one took about a quarter of the time.

With all of that, this is the kitchen I woke up to this morning:

Even the 8 year old was excited.  Counters, a new sink, and the backsplash will happen after Christmas.  The drywall mental block is gone so we can push forward.