Spackling- Just Like Frosting a Cake

I do not find drywalling to be as dry as I expected.  Instead, it's some of the most exciting moments of house renovation, and also some of the most satisfying.  The exciting part comes when Brandon finishes putting the screws in a piece that I've been straining to hold in place, and then we step back and get a small trill when we realize that now it finally looks like a wall.  Turns out, walls are some of the best parts of a house.  

Once we had enough walls in place, it was my turn to take charge of the next step, which is applying the drywall compound to the seams and screw holes.  This is the part we've been dreading, and that so many people encouraged us to hire out.  Since  multiple friends have taken the time to offer phone numbers of their favorite drywall guys, I can only assume that this is a skill hard to master, and that there isn't abundant confidence that a someone like me is up for the challenge.  My past experience with drywall spackling, as a teenager, would not enhance my handyman resume either, since the seams turned out terrible and the paper soon started to peel away.  But, that was before youtube. Youtube teaches everything, and I have spent many minutes sitting on my bucket of drywall compound watching tiny images on my phone make applying drywall spackle seem as easy as frosting a cake.  

Apparently, the key to success is to do multiple thin coats, with successively larger trowels, which is not something I realized as a teen when I slopped it on thick and tried to smooth it out with a single tool.  The first coat sticks on the paper that seals the seams, and I did nearly the entire house in just two short efforts.  To my surprise, I find this job to be very enjoyable.  Since the radio station that comes in the best at the farm house intermixed hip hop, pop, and Christmas tunes for the weeks leading up to the holiday, I've had very entertaining and seasonally appropriate music to my labor.  I've nearly finished the second coat on everything that was ready, and I have high hopes that I'm doing at least good enough that with a few strategically placed paintings on the walls, we will be happy with our home made drywall job.   

In this photo, you can see the exposed chimney upstairs with its cage of boards and mess of electric wires.  Not very tidy at all.  

But once we recruited Jamie to help us load and hang ten more sheets of drywall, the room and chimney begins to take on a much more tidy appearance.  

See, isn't that exciting.  Now we have walls!  Even more exciting, the chimney walls mean I get to use some outside corner spackling techniques that I have only watched other people do on the interweb.  I've tried my hand at the first two coats on some inside corners, but outside corners are brand new for me.  I bet after I finish all the many coats of spackle on the walls of this house, I will be a champ when it comes to frosting a cake!