Picked up his hammer and saw

I was off this week, taking the usual Spring Break time off. We usually take a camping trip to Southern Illinois and Shawnee National Forest, but it's a bit early in the year for camping this year. And most of our usual spots to explore are inundated. Here's a picture of a favorite picnic spot and spillway to play in, by Gretchen Steele. Notice the mist from the torrent that is the spillway, and the picnic tables.

So off to the new Mega-Menards to get some fresh mud, dust off the knives, and get to work in the girls bathroom. Diane and Aspen pitched in with stripping off the remaining wallpaper in the downstairs bathroom. I had alot of fixing to do upstairs. Some rough patches here and there, dings and pock marks, loose tape, and all of it painted over. A well meaning helper's work. Should be painted, again, this week. Then we can finally get some flooring down and get the hulking vanity and countertop out of the hallway. And start over again in finishing that space. There's too much stuff there now to do anything but walk through.
Some lessons learned:

1. Even good tools fail. (more on the tools I've been using later)
2. Supervise the un-supervisable. They may mean well, but it isn't their house. Nobody cares about the quality of work more than you do when it comes to your house.
3. If I keep looking, I can find more faults by the builder - Blackhawk Construction. (more on them some other day, or by request) Once again, nobody cares more about the quality of work more than you do.
4. There is always something somebody can do to help. Just be willing to give up a little.
5. Diane likes to pound nails into underlayment. "Sure beats housework."
6. Every once in a while, technique slips to art. I managed to lay on a strip of drywall mud so smooth, sanding it would have ruined it. 3 feet out of 400? in that room. For another example, the last minute or so of this video -
7. Measure twice, cut once. Measure three, four, five times, cut it correctly the first time.
   
8. There is no such thing as low shrinkage anything.
   
9. If you want to scribe a piece to match a wall, corner, whatever, don't attach the piece next door yet.
10. Bare drywall isn't a color scheme.