REPARO! (waves wand madly about...)

Well, I have started on the repairs to the house. After the fiasco with getting that damn cat (sweet little Pips) out of the heating duct (scroll down a few posts and read all about it if you want to pee your pants laughing!), during which I trashed the livingroom wall in one corner and ripped out part of the basement ceiling, I am seriously wishing for a magic wand ala Harry Potter so I can get it done with no fuss or muss.

I used metal duct tape on the two ducts in the livingroom wall that I cut into. Since I couldn't tell which duct the cat was in, I naturally had to cut both open because the first one was (you guessed it!) the wrong one. At least the metal tape is a pretty permanent fix and I won't have to replace those sections of duct. Because that would likely entail ripping out even more of the wall and I ain't goin' there! That is too much like work...

My girlfriend and her hubby built a house last year and had some pieces of drywall lying around their basement, so she kindly donated enough to allow me to patch everything up for only the cost of the drywall screws and the mud to fill the cracks.

Considering how much that damn cat cost me, it's a good thing I don't have to pay for someone to fix the mess I made. But I had no idea drywall was so heavy! In the past, I have only handled quite small pieces.

The ceiling piece needed to be 45 x 80 inches. Well, that size, which Girlfriend just happened to have, wouldn't fit in my Blazer, so we had to cut it into two pieces. Which were not halves, of course.

Now, the ceiling needs to be covered up asap, as I figure because Pips is running around and playing again after her ordeal, she will soon look up and realize there is a jungle gym in them thar walls. The last thing I need is ANOTHER freakin' heart attack as I rip out more walls trying to rescue that damn cat! (Maybe I should just change her name to THAT DAMN CAT.... seems that is what I have been calling her lately...)

So I got the smaller of the two pieces up in the basement ceiling, after nailing a piece of strapping across the framework so I would have something to screw it to. That wasn't too bad.

Then I tried to hold the other piece in place and screw it in as well. Holy crap! I just about put my back out trying to do that! A 45" x 47" piece of drywall is actually too heavy and awkward for me (and I am not a small woman - I am 5'9" and have good upper body strength) to hold in place with one hand while the other hand is trying to manoeuver the drill. I tried three times. And then gave up.

So tomorrow evening, a friend is coming over to help with this two minute job, which is all it will take, really. I just need a second pair of hands. I need to be an octopus for some of the things I have to do around here, but since I am not, I have lured him over with promises of chicken curry for dinner as payment for that piddly-ass little bit of work! He figures it's a steal of a deal - home cooked meal for almost nothing.

Of course, I then get the pleasure of his company for the remainder of the evening, so I think it is a pretty fair deal! I will post more pics later after I actually get all this done. I don't think I have any paint left over for the livingroom either. ((sigh)) Which means I will have to go out and buy some - of both colours - to finish it off completely.