Shades of Sheetrock

Today was sheetrock day!

Angela came over to help, and I doubt I could have done the ceiling without her.  It was great having someone to call out measurements, hold the other end of panels, and hand me all the tools I kept leaving in the wrong place.  She had to leave in the mid-afternoon, but by then all the ceiling was up (not including the skylight) and several important stretches of wall.  Plus she helped me move another load of sheetrock in from the car.

The boys' bathroom is completely rocked:

The girls bathroom is about 80% rocked.  I only have half the wall behind the toilet, the wall to the right of that, the wall behind the sinks, and the half-wall to the left of that.  I think I need to put the laundry chute before doing those last bits, so I plan to build and install that tomorrow.

Now you can admire the skylight:

Look at those trapezoids and guess how many trips up and down the ladder each one took.

WRONG!  They only took two each: one to make a paper template and one to install the finished piece!  I had a complete brainwave as I was about to start and thought, "There is no way in the world to measure those but if I could only trace the pattern on a big sheet of paper I could get the right the first time."  The roll of construction paper was right there, so a few staple and pencil marks later I had perfect templates.  And it was a very good thing, too, because the two sides actually have some curve to them because of the geometry.  It would have been impossible to check where the piece needed to be trimmed.  You had to start with a piece that fit and gradually curve it around to the final shape as you installed the screws.