Dining Room Cleanup, and the Ting Test
I was out running errands in the morning. With the time change, I was figuring I’d get home to find Liz still asleep and we’d end up having breakfast in bed, watch a little TV.
On walking back inside, I saw Liz had already suited up and was ready to do the last bit of work we had in the dining room. And boy, given how long it took us… am I glad she got an early start. We had breakfast in the kitchen like normal people, and then got to it.
The goal for the day: relocate and clear the dining room for the taper, patch up the ceiling, and get rid of any material we don’t want/need.

Liz, applying some mud to the groove we had to cut last night.
After this, we spent a long while relocating a lot of masonite and drywall. Filled up our bins with a lot of excess material, and also cleaned up a lot of debris that had been sitting along the side of the house.
Once all that was done (and it took a while), we had our last and final task: check all the screws, to make sure they weren’t protruding. The taper can’t do what he needs to do, if there are screw heads poking out. He showed us something we could to do test, an approach I have dubbed “the ‘ting’ test.”
Originally, I was going to check all the screws myself and go back to fix them. But Liz decided to help me out. She went around checking things while I lagged behind, fixing what she found. We did a round on foot, then a round where she was on the scaffold (and I followed behind on a ladder).

Power tools.

Me, taking a very late afternoon break and feeling pretty worn out.

When we got to checking the ceiling, it was *ting* *ting* *ting* everywhere. After a minute, we decided to just let me go and review/re-hit every single screw, rather than having Liz test. Because they were almost all bad.
Which was disheartening to see. I think I tend to be very cautious with the ceiling drywall, worried the screw will pull through if I go too far. Looking back, I definitely needed to sink those screws in more.
Also, another realization: I thought I was good at putting in screws close to the edge of a sheet. Turns out, I’m horrible at that! On more than one occasion, I had screws way, way too close to the edge.
It’s like thinking your singing in the shower is fantastic, only to then hear an actual recording of your voice… and the slow realization that your self-assessment of your own talents may be biased.

The finished dining room, looking towards the basement.

Dining room, kitchen and basement doors.

Dining room, looking North.
We got done closer to 3:30 PM. And once more, I’m so so happy Liz got us started earlier in the day, because we would have been working until 5PM otherwise.
One takeaway from all of this: we’re going to be checking our ceiling screws more, when we work in the main hall area. I for sure don’t want to have to do another “ting” test, as it just seems like an unnecessary last step. I think I had to do this exercise to see just how off my good/bad ratio was, and hopefully I’ll be better with the next room.
Related:
Last Dining Room Drywall
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