2-27-09 Kitchen recap

I have been getting many requests from my loyal readers for a kitchen progress update. I apologize for not posting more often but Mr. S is a real slave driver. He has me working every night until 1am and every waking hour of the weekends. I feel like a zombie. A Gnome needs his beauty sleep!

Well here is what has happened...

The drywall is all up and finished. Hanging the drywall wasn't that hard. Measure, cut, balance on the point of my head, screw in place. Couldn't have been simpler. Finishing the drywall was another story. Mr. S introduced me to something called “Joint Compound”. This was something I have never seen before. It seems you add water to the dusty powder and mix until it is the consistency of the butter made from the milk of a Jar-Gin beast. Mr. S showed me how to spread it onto the walls nice and smooth to fill in the gaps between sheets. This was actually fun! In Gnomistan the local building code calls for the gaps to be filled in with something closely resembling the consistency of chicken noodle soup. This is a great improvement. After two nights we had all the holes filled and the joints sealed. I really enjoyed the work! I stood back and admired my work looking forward to my next project. As I put away our tools Mr. S looked confused. I had thought our job was done, Mr. S had different ideas. He informed me that we had just completed the first coat and there were 2 to 3 coats to go! This broke my little gnome heart. We worked and worked for what seemed like an eternity. And please don't get me started about the dust! I don't understand why after spending days and days putting the joint compound on the walls we started sanding it off. I questioned Mr. S about this but he gave me a very nasty look. He looked very scary covered head to toe in white dust that I dare not anger him. If all this work wasn't bad enough the dust was the most vile substance known to man and Gnome. It sucks all the moisture from you skin and makes you look 80 years older. Three weeks and roughly 80 pounds of joint compound later the job was finished. I didn't like the work as much any more.


For the next few days Mr. S and I cleaned the entire room top to bottom. Mr. S washed the ceiling, removing the last of the vile dust while I washed the walls and floor. You might notice that I am doing more cleaning than Mr. S. The short answer is that I upset Mr. and Mrs. S the other day and this is my punishment. The long story is...well...long. Let's just say it involved a belt sander, sugar free Jello, the fine men and women of the Air National Guard, and a BIG misunderstanding. I would tell you more but I'm under a national security gag order. Ask me again in 30 years.

So the walls are clean, all the holes are patched, and the surface is ready for paint. One more thing to cross off of our list!