House Post: Drywall in the Basement

I know that you've all been desperately worried that things are not progressing on the house. Fear not. Still tons of work being done, still tons to do. I don't think I really understood how all-consuming home ownership is.

Last weekend, my parents visited and we did a number of projects around the house. I spent a significant chunk of time helping my dad continue to work on the wall in our basement that separates the garage space from the main basement space. It has to have 5/8" sheetrock on it to help it be fireproof so that it meets code. I guess garages are prime spaces to start fires. It will also have to be air-sealed so that noxious fumes can't get into the rest of the basement.

So the first step was actually to put a vapor barrier on the warm side of the wall - which is what you see here. My dad did this one, thankfully, because I had been sitting on it for weeks and dreading it.

Then we sheetrocked almost all of the other side. Cue lots and lots of measuring, re-measuring, and swearing. My dad insists that a really good drywall guy could've done both sides of the wall in just a few hours, but whatever. It's getting done, and the quote I got from the drywall guy was in the multiple thousands of dollars and way out of the budget.

The Monday after he left, I did those two sheets all! by! myself! Which kind of sucked but was also very validating.

Baby steps, baby steps! Next for that space: get the rest of the insulation in the ceiling, spray foam the gaps around the garage door, and then sheetrock the ceiling. Then buy & install a 90 minute fire door, and caulk along where the floor and walls of the basement meet. THEN I'll think about re-sealing the floor, and maybe by next winter I'll be able to park in my garage!