Day 1 (The Toggle Bolt's Revenge)

Day 1

(imagine the Law and Order music)

The day started out easy enough. 

I had had simple goals for the day:

1. remove all the switch plates, pictures, shelves, towel racks, etc.

2. wash the walls with bleach water

3. tape everything off

simple enough right?!?!?

NOPE!

Everything was going smoothly until I was taking down the towel rack. I had trouble getting one of the screws out of the wall. As you can see from the first hole, the dry wall was wrecked in the first place. 

I worked on it for a little while and decided I would come back to it later. 

I had gotten everything else done and taken down. I even took a break for a minute. 

I knew what I had to do.

I knew I couldn't just leave this screw dangling out of the wall like this. Joe would say I was "half-assin it"

I also knew I didn't want him to see this huge hole in the dry wall. 

I tried screwing it every which way. I just kept repeating "lefty/loosey, righty/tighty" and "OMG, Joe can't see this hole"

I finally started jerking and pulling with all of my might!

I heard things start cracking. I kept thinking "Well, if it was in a stud, it would have screwed out!"

Finally, I got the bolt out and I discovered the problem...

That, my friends, is a toggle bolt!!

I recently learned about toggle bolts from my father in law. I kept thinking he was saying "taco bolt"

He was hanging a hook rack in my laundry room for backpacks, purses, coats, etc. He told me when you are hanging something heavy and you don't have a stud, you need to use a toggle bolt. He also said the only way the hook rack would come out of the wall is if we pulled the dry wall out with the toggle bolt. 

Well, I found that out the hard way!

Thank goodness we had some wall putty in the garage. I was able to patch over the hole!

After this little hiccup, I was able to knock out the rest of my to-do list for the day!!

My goals for day 2:

1. tape off the ceiling

2. prime, prime, prime!!!!

I will let y'all know how it goes!!