A Tale of One Basement

I am about to review a seriously awesome product that I've found: self-adhering drywall tape.  Now, before you run screaming in anticipated boredom, stick with me for at least a few minutes.  I think it will be an interesting story, and there will be pictures.

We bought our first house just about a year and a half ago.  We chose where we lived based on the school system, as I'm sure many, many new parents do.  Actually, I should back up.  My husband, a Texas native, wanted to move to the Houston area.  Me, the only child with all of my large family within driving distance, had a slight panic attack over the whole situation and put up a big fuss, and now we live here in tax-heavy Connecticut (I know, I know).  So, because we chose to stay in the state, we then chose a town based on the highly-rated schools, which means to say we now live in a town with higher taxes.

Anyway, back to the house.  It is a Cape Cod style built in the 1970s.  It was updated some, but it never really got out of the early 1990s, with 1970s remnants (popcorn ceiling! grasscloth!) still alive and kicking.  We chose it because of its good layout, and in said slightly expensive town, it was a reasonable price for what we were looking for.  We have been slowly going through the house and updating it to our style.  And when I say slowly, I mean as fast as humanly possible without giving ourselves any real break, which still isn't fast enough for us.  In this year and a half we have redone the entire upstairs, including gutting the bathroom, my husband's office which is needed for his job, cleared out the overgrown back part of the yard, and started work on the large but unfinished basement.  And except for the carpet laying and bulldozing/yard leveling, we have done it all ourselves.

Bathroom Pre



Bathroom Post

My husband is pretty incredible as far as the home handiwork goes.  If he doesn't know how to do something, he finds a video online and learns how.  Therefore, he has the brunt of the work.  Because of that, I have taken on more of the grunt tasks that he doesn't like to do, like painting.  I am a way better painter than him, if I do say so myself.  And in removing the walls and walls and walls of wallpaper (every single room but one) I have taught myself how to spackle, which means I am now the spackler of the house.

Right now we are finishing one half of our basement.  One room will be a laundry room, the other room a rec room.  In doing this, we have to build walls.  Which means lots of spackling.  If you've never done it before, consider yourself lucky, but here's the process: spackle the seams, measure drywall tape, wet drywall tape, smooth drywall tape, cover drywall tape with spackle, let dry, sand, and spackle again.  It is a slow, messy process, and if you have done it before then you know what I'm talking about.  I had gotten the laundry room side done and was dreading and putting off the rec room side.  But we found this awesome product: self-adhesive drywall tape.  It was seven times more expensive than the regular tape (ok, $1 vs. $7) but oh my goodness it was so worth it.  This tape looks like plastic netting and touching it, you wouldn't think it could stick to anything.  But it adhered to the drywall so easily and in one swipe it was covered with spackle.  While my husband made dinner tonight, I was able to get the rest of the project done.  It took me hours to do the other side.  I don't think I've been this excited about a new product since I got my Scotch ATG for Christmas. 

Almost complete!

I haven't been able to think of a crafty use for it yet, but I'm sure there is something you could do with it because it's tacky but not sticky and it's repositionable.  If you think of anything, let me know.  And speaking of which, anyone out there turn some home-improvement tool into something crafty?  It's amazing what you can find at Home Depot.  I should know- we're there all the time.