Mudding & Laundry

That’s what I have been doing for the past two weekends– mudding the walls downstairs and doing laundry.

I’ve never done mudding before and it is hard work. But I’ve learned a lot about how to do it just by doing it– slapping it on, spreading it out, scraping it down. I’ve learned that corner trowels DON’T work for making nice, neat corners; so I’ve learned how to make corners without ‘em. I’ve learned that when you’re short, mudding requires that you have a variety of at least 2-3 step-stools or ladders handy for reaching high places. I’ve also learned that when your hands are covered in mud from scraping out the bottom of the container, it’s best to just wipe ‘em on your shirt. But the most important thing I’ve learned is that you shouldn’t mud the ceiling with your mouth hanging open. Something could fall in, and it wouldn’t be very tasty.

And while I’ve been doing all this learning with mud, I’ve been doing laundry at the same time. Laundry, AT HOME! Hallelujah! At long last! It’s only been FOUR MONTHS since I’ve had the privilege. There were a couple of times where I thought I was going to be able to do laundry at home, only to be appalled by water back-up when the washer drained between cycles. So, here comes the plumber, YET AGAIN, (”I’m getting to know your place like the back of my hand,” he says) and we determine that construction debris and some roots from the tree in the front yard are clogging our line, which he cleans out so thoroughly that he gives us a one-year warranty on the work. And just for good measure, he caps off the toilet access in the downstairs bathroom for now, until we can get the stool put back in, and he has us “shock” our sewer line with copper sulfate something-or-other to kill off any remaining roots. And NOW, finally, I can do laundry at home! Which is good, because it was reaching critical mass.

So, as of this past weekend, we have achieved our 3rd (and hopefully, last) coat of mud on the walls, and all my laundry is caught up. We celebrated on Sunday by having our traditional Sunday bagel breakfast, followed by a trip to the bookstore, which we haven’t done in ages.

Next up: sanding the walls, most likely.