Grout

After a short delay, the tiles are grouted.  Now just awaiting a final cleaning then return to the walls and ceiling to finish mudding the seams.

joints are grouted

A full day of taping

All those ugly gaps are gone and sealed up with the first coat of joint compound.  I found a nice new tape that works very well in the corners and spans some the wider gaps.  Ireally do hate to tape as it a skill I have not mastered but lots of sanding and some flat paint should take care of any imperfections.

corners are taped

opposite corner taped

lights are up temporarily 

Bump out built and ready for beadboard

Also finished the frame for the bumpout.  The reason it has to jog back towards the wall is because it would run into the window if we maintained the 12" shelf.

looking in from the dining room

this how the beadboard will go around the bend

Time for some rest - so back to real work for a few days then we'll see what develops over the weekend.

Sheetrock

positioned just right

the wheel has a brake to keep it from coming down - a very simple way to push that rock to the ceiling.

Here's a little better look of the sheetrock lift.  It's holding up the final sheet of ceiling rock - yay!  It's very adjustable but the wide legs make for a tight fit on an 8' by 20' room.

I got the cutouts for the outlets right the first time - miracles do happen occaisionally!

sheetrock is compete on the walls

this bump out is for a shelf and to hold a bookcase

Sheetrock is complete for the walls.  Below will be beadboard just above the window sills.  the bumpout will get beadboard and some additional work to blend it back into the wall.  The idea is to build a bookcase above it and have a wide shelf for display.  A sofa will go in front of it.

Heavy lifting

faired out wall

 After another storm and some time off for work, we're back to finishing off the walls and ceiling.  The first thing was to frame out the back wall so there would be something to attach the wallboard to as the existing wall was pretty wavy.

first sheet of wallboard

A back saver has come to the rescue.  The red tool holding up the first piece of ceiling is a mechanical device that gets cranked up and adjusts to any angles.  The sheet can be adjusted once it gets close then screwed home without all the agony and swearing that occurs when done by hand.

ceiling is underway

The first row of ceiling panels are up.  Tomorrow, hopefully it will be finished and the taping can begin.  Those with long memories may remember that we posted a finished ceiling a while ago.  Unfortunately, that was accomplished with particle board beadboard and it really looked wavy so it was pulled down and thrown away.

Perimeter tiles installed

An afternoon of cutting to fit filled in the remaining gaps on the floor.  Next step will be grouting.  That step is the subject of some discussion.  Current thinking is to tile the sides and top it with some boards that were taken up from the previous porch floor or to use some of the wide boards we saved from the second story project.  Stay tuned.  Once the floor is done the ceiling will go up and the walls will get wainscotting and drywall.

Floor Tiles

Tiling has begun.  We're using 18"x18" ceramic/porcelain tiles in a grid pattern.  We've started out with the full size tiles then will follow with the cut tiles around the perimeter.  The round orange pieces are the spacers - 1/4"for the grout.  The white pieces go under two adjacent tiles and when the wedge is inserted, bring them to the same level (making up for some of the imperfections).  The heating is working well as we've seen single digit temperatures for most of the week while the room remains in the 60's.

levelers and spacers

Restarting the project!

Well, we're back after a long absence.  A New Year's resolution to finally button up the porch project along with many visits from friends and family and the universal comment "you still haven't finished?" has been the kick in the butt we've needed to get to action.

First step is to get the floor tiled.  To do that we have to install the heating elements - in our case a Honeywell system that is electric.  In the picture below you can make out the coils that go back and forth.  These were set in a mortar.  Since it is winter and the slab is very cold, we made the connections and turned it on in order to help cure the mortar.

First layer - heating elements

Powered up and registering 61 degrees!

The next step is to provide a separation layer between concrete of the base slab and the final surface tile.  In order to do that effectively we've used a great new product from Germany.  It is essentially a hybrid of fabric attached to a plastic.  The fabric is mortared onto the slab then another layer of mortor is placed on top filling the blocks.  The system allows for differential movement reducing (hopefully eliminating) any chance for cracking.

Separation layer

Now that the base system is in place, we will wait to let everything cure and look to install the tiles over the next weekend.

Ready for tile!