I’ve been painting the kitchen. And by painting, I mean I’ve been working on one wall at a time. For a while now, I’ve only had enough energy to tackle a single wall. So the world’s slowest painting job has been steadily proceeding.
Anyhoo… I’ve been trying to do the right thing and prep the walls properly before applying paint. Recently I moved to an exterior wall and started cleaning and sanding. When I reached the bottom of said wall, I realized the drywall was so soft I could push straight through. That’s right. Straight through – with my fingers. At first, I worried I’d find a leaky pipe inside the wall. After poking around, I discovered a crack on the outside of the wall. Due to a recent rain, water had gotten in that crack and wet the drywall from the inside. (Woo-hoo! No leaky pipe!) Capisce? Once that mystery was solved, I moved on to the far-too-easy-to-peel paint in that same area. I hoped it was limited to the immediate space around the wet drywall, but noooooooo. Apparently, the brilliant mind who originally worked on this part of the kitchen slapped up some paint on bare, unprepared drywall, so the paint wasn’t able to adhere. That friends, is not cool.
I sealed the outside crack, then did some extra sealing from the inside. Then I cut out the damaged drywall and patched in a new section. Presently, I’m 2 days in on a 3-day skim-coat and sand process. Once that’s checked off, I’ll apply drywall primer to the smooth /new sections. Then – and only then – I’ll be able to paint.
Doing things the right way is sometimes a real pain in the ass. But it’s still the right way. Even when it’s one wall at a time.