A Massive Wall Fix

I confess I love plumbers, as they are always busting holes in walls that I then get to fix.  In this case, an entire section of wall was knocked out by plumbers to address a leak:At first I thought “whoa, this is way too big for me,” but then I thought, “I plug holes in walls all the time– this is just a slightly bigger hole.”  So I picked up some lumber and drywall and went at it.

The trick to putting up drywall is having a nice level skeleton of support behind it.  This job was tricky because here at the lower half it used to be tongue in groove wainscotting, AND there was an outlet in the mix.  OY.  SO I had to shim shim shim to create a decent underlayment: I used shims and stir sticks.  then I had to cut the hole for the outlet.  once I got the lower half done I could do bigger pieces from there to ceiling:

And, well, finished in terms of the wall existing:

Oy this was a lot of work to make it all fit with no lippage and no spongy spots.  I put 2 struts across the back of the outlet to support it.

And finally, before and after– here it is all taped and mudded and ready to be sanded and painted.  What a difference!