What happened to the attic?

Sometimes things do change. The attic project has dragged on for fifteen months. Sometimes it has moved along and at a couple points I threw my hands up in disgust in private and said I quit. At one time I'd thought we could be done by the 4th of July which came and went. After spending what seemed like every spare minute up there and feeling helpless I would get very frustrated.

Occasionally a brother would come by and help and a small burst of progress would occur. The long and the short of it was I needed someone to help me lift and shlep drywall. I couldn't manhandle 4 by 8 and 4 by 10, not to mention 4 by 12 5/8th thick drywall by myself.

When I had to rip out the tile floor that my mother and I had layed in the bathroom because of mistakes I had made I went into a depressive tail spin. I shut the door on the attic and walked away pretending it did not exist.

Then my nephew introduced me to a friend of his and I had an employee to help me on Saturdays. My new friend Dave and I got most of the drywall up and began taping. My friend Steve also came by and did some mudding too. Things were looking better and hope returned.

A few weekends ago I went up to see my Amish door maker fearing the doors would have been done long ago. They were not but my visit appears to have spurred him on as he has called two or three times with clarifying questions regarding trim work. So I began to worry that I was going to need to find a place to store the doors until things were ready to go in.

Last Wednesday after two previous false starts my brother and two of his crew came up to help out. The two crew have put in two long days and I have been retired to role of onlooker and contractor. It is easier and suits me well. The crew have drywalled the attic crevices far better than I would have and used up much of the scrap. A layer of mud or plaster has been applied almost everywhere.

The space is looking like rooms and the attic is disappearing. We are shopping for paint and flooring tomorrow.