Decking the porch and finishing the walls

While the sheet rock finishers work inside, I work outside laying the decking for our porch.  I use a product called "Choicedek" which is a plastic/wood composite made from recycled PET bottles (like Coke bottles) and waste wood dust/chips.  It runs about $1.45/linear foot for the five quarters X 6" material.  The pink/burgundy color will change to a uniform gray after a few months of exposure.

To get a consistent gap between the boards, I use the age old method of spacing with 16 penny nails.  Working alone, I use my quick clamps to squeeze the boards against the nail spacers.  I pre-drill for each screw with a #8 countersinking bit, so that I get the head below the surface of the deck.  I considered using stainless steel screws, but balked at the cost - about 20 times more than a zinc coated screw!

Back inside the house, Rich (left) and Jerry (right) have completed the sheet rock finishing and sanding.  Since the walls will not be textured, the mud work needs to be high quality.

After sanding, we sprayed the whole house with primer and rolled in the primer by hand.  I rigged temporary lights in each room (see below right) and Rich and Jerry returned to touch up any imperfections in the finishing job.  By priming the house and putting the lights up, we are able to see bad seams, dents, scratches, etc in the mud work that were not apparent.

The end result is a high quality "slick" finish.  On Thursday, we will roll two coats of paint with 1/2" lambs wool rollers to get a nice orange peel.  Kudos to Rich and Jerry from RSB Drywall for a job well done.