Drywall is a pretty amazing trade. It goes like this: (a) a truck with a big boom on it lifts 40,000 lbs. of limestone into the house (sandwiched between two layers of paper in the form of drywall) , (b)  8 guys descend on the project and in two days “hang” the sheets, (c) a different load of guys show up and tape the seams and finish the surface to deliver nice smooth walls. This all happens for shockingly little money; the whole process costs less than $1/sq-ft of surface including materials and labor.

On this project we specified smooth “level 5” surfaces everywhere. No texture on anything. Nice crisp corners too. None of that fake stucco and texture that seems to be everywhere in the West.

Continue reading →