Lake Home Sun Room Addition - Interior finish

In my previous two posts on this project, I talked about decision and planning, as well as demo, framing, and finishing the outside.  Now, I'll discuss finishing the interior of the structure.

After some discussion, we decided to drywall all four walls.  Originally, we had planned on leaving the siding on the side of the house, but drywall would give us a more finished, nicer look.  It also made it easier to run power and install light fixtures, without running wires in surface conduit.  The ceiling would be soffit material, and we'd install some recessed lighting fixtures, as well as a couple of ceiling fans and wall sconces.  As I mentioned before, we'd also install a small through-the-wall heat pump.  The floor would be ceramic tile, to minimize maintenance.

The first step was to run the wiring.  Fortunately, I had an easy path to get power from the breaker box to the porch.  I pulled wire for one 15 amp, 120 volt circuit for lights and outlets, and one 20 amp, 240 volt circuit for the heat pump.  I put a lot of outlets in the porch - one every 4' or so on the outside wall - I figured it was easier to do that now than to have to add one later in the process.  When I finished the outside, I added a couple of boxes for outside outlets.  I wired those up, hooking them into the same circuit as the inside outlets.  For safety purposes, I ran all the outlets through a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupting  (GFCI) outlet.  I was able to wire it so that one GFCI would protect all the outlets on the circuit - the instructions in the package explains how to do it.  At this time, I installed the "can" lights, and the junction boxes that would hold the ceiling fans.  I also ran wire for a couple of motion-detector lights for the exterior - a valuable security feature.

After running all the wiring, it was time to install insulation, then drywall.  Fortunately, Carter came down to help with this part of the project, making it much easier than it would be alone.  We elected to use fiberglass batt insulation, with a heavy poly film for a vapor barrier.  Since we had 2 X 6 walls, we used 6" insulation.

 

First, we added fiberglass batt insulation, then stapled on the vapor barrier.

The ceiling was a bit different.  Since the ceiling was the floor of the 2nd story deck, covered with a waterproof coating, we didn't want to add the vapor barrier - I was worried about trapping moisture in between two waterproof surfaces.  In addition, the roof had a slight slope to it, to aid in shedding water.  Since we wanted a roof level with the rest of the room, we had to add furring strips to level it out. 

Now, we were ready for drywall!

When planning a drywall project, one of the most important things to keep in mind is to minimize the number of seams, to make finishing as easy as possible.  When you buy your drywall, buy a couple of extra pieces, just in case.  Since drywall itself is relatively cheap, you would never cut multiple pieces where one continuous piece will work.  In this case, we had a long, narrow, rectangular room with a lot of windows and doors, so we'd have enough finishing to do regardless of how well planned it was.  We could use 4' X 12' sheets for much of it, which helped.

We had decided to use 1/2" thick drywall - the standard thickness for new construction - for the new.  To cover the existing siding on the inside wall, we went with thinner 3/8" material - more than adequate for the job, since it was just covering up a solid surface.

Since we had so many windows, I decided we'd just drywall around them, with no added wooden trim.  I thought, since the wall was essentially all window, that wooden trim would be a distraction.  I figured, if we didn't like it, I could always add it later.  This turned out to be a good decision - although it added a lot of labor, it saved quite a bit in material cost, and we like the look a lot.

In the old days (the 1970's), we used nails to secure drywall.  I think they still sell drywall nails, but I don't know who would ever use them.  Today, drywall is secured with screws - typically about an inch and a quarter long, that are easily set with any driver drill.  They're easier to work with, and provide much improved holding power, compared with nails.  When I hang drywall, I try to use only as many screws as necessary to hold the drywall firmly in place.  It's also important to drive the screws to just below the surface, while making sure you don't tear the paper - there should be a little dimple at each screw, that can easily be filled with joint compound when you're finishing.

Hanging drywall goes fairly quickly, and Carter and I got it up without too much trouble.  Probably the hardest part of this was carrying the sheets down the hill!  I also caught a bug that weekend, so I wasn't as much help as I might have been otherwise (of course, I'm not much help normally anyway, so maybe that wasn't too big a deal, after all).  In any case, we had the drywall in place by the end of the weekend.

The drywall is up.  Notice the furring strips on the ceiling, which are shimmed down to make the ceiling level.

Notice the drywall around the window.  There is, however, a wooden jamb extension around the patio door.

Very few seams on this wall - we hung the drywall horizontally, to reduce finishing.  Note the seam about halfway up the support post beam

Ready for Mud!

Carter wisely elected not to come for the drywall  finishing process.  Drywall finishing isn't impossible for an amateur to do well - you just have to have a lot of patience.  It's also important to keep in mind that virtually every wall will have a few flaws in it, if you look hard enough.  If the joint looks bad before you paint, it will look worse after, so take the time to do it right.

Pros may be able to get great looking walls with two coats of mud, but I've always needed three.  The key is to use fresh mud, and broad strokes.  If you do it right, you shouldn't need to sand between coats.  If you're like me, you'll need to do some sanding and touching up after your third coat.  Here's the basic process:

• The long edges of drywall sheets are tapered, so those are the easiest joints to cover.  Have two new, uncut edges join whenever possible.
• I've always used paper tape - it's cheap and pretty easy to work with.  They make fiberglass self-stick tape, but it's quite a bit more expensive, and I've heard it is more susceptible to cracking.  If you've used it and like it, that's fine.
• Your "mud" - drywall compound - should be fairly thin.  If it seems thick, thin it with water.
• Take a wide putty knife or drywall knife - about 4" - and put down a bed of mud slightly wider than the tape.  It doesn't have to be too thick, but should be thick enough for you to embed the tape into it - maybe about 1/8" thick or so. 
• Cut a length of tape the right length for your joint, and push it into the mud at the beginning of your joint to hold it in place. With the 4" knife at a slight angle - and a small amount of mud on the blade - run down the joint, pushing the tape into the mud.  You should push out excess mud from around the tape, and end up with the tape in the mud, with a very slight amount on top.  Be careful to make sure that there is mud UNDER the tape through the whole joint - if there's a void, it will pop up and separate in the future.  You'll end up with a bunch of excess mud on you knife - put it back in the container as you go.
• Let the first coat dry completely, then knock off any chunks with the drywall knife, so it's fairly smooth (it isn't supposed to be perfect at this point, so don't be too obsessive about it).  If there's a spot that has a big lump, you may have to sand that down now.
• The second coat is put on with a wider knife - probably about 8".  Put a little mud on the knife, and draw it over the first.  The mud will be spread wider this time - you're still getting a thin coat.  Resist the temptation to glob on a whole bunch of mud - more is not better, in this case!
• Let it dry, and again knock off any chunks.  It will probably look pretty good now, but you're not done - if you paint after two coats, it will look horrible, so don't even think about it!
• The third coat goes on with the 12" knife - very thin and smooth.  After this coat, it should look pretty good - you'll have a few lines and defects, but they should be pretty minor.  You'll want to touch up any big boo boos, but minor issues will be taken care of with sanding.
• You should install metal or plastic corner beads on any outside corners - these give you a nice straight corner, and provide protection against damage.  After installing the beads, finish these with three coats, like above.
• Inside corners are tougher, but not impossible.  Look closely at your tape, and you'll see it's creased in the middle.  If you bend it at the crease, you can set it in the corner, and tape just like a flat joint.  It is easiest to use a special knife designed for inside corners to set the tape in the mud - subsequent coats are done with a flat knife - let one side dry before doing the other.
• Screw hole are filled with mud - a couple of coats are usually sufficient there.

After you're done with the mud, it's time to sand.  You can use a sponge, designed for sanding drywall, or a block of wood with sandpaper attached.  In any case, go easy!  If you use coarse paper, or sand too aggressively, you'll have to go back to applying mud again.  Be especially careful not to rough up the paper - it will show after paining.  Don't use a power sander - it's way too easy to take off too much material.  Often, a damp sponge or rag will work well for sanding.

Next up - paint!


After sanding, I applied a primer coat, then painted.  We elected to use 3 colors - the two ends were one color, and each long side was a different one.  I hate to paint, but I worked through it, and soon had it all painted.

Now I just needed to tile the floor, install the ceiling, and complete the trim and touch up.

 Carter came down for the next part - installing tile.  We borrowed my neighbor's tile saw, which helped a bunch.  Unfortunately, we picked the coldest weekend in memory to tackle this job - a major headache, since we set the saw up outside.  Since the process involves having your hands sprayed with water while you're cutting, it made cutting the tile very unpleasant.  Even with this issue, it was better to cut the tile outside, and avoid the mess inside.

Since Carter was the experienced tile setter, she laid all the tile, while I kept busy mixing thinset and cutting tiles for the edges.  We elected to go with a staggered pattern - not really any harder to set.

We started at the far end, and worked our way down.  There were doors at both ends, so we were in no danger of tiling ourselves into a corner!  Note the spacers still in place between the most recent tiles.

We liked the staggered pattern.

Once the tile was in place, it was time for grout. Grout is the stuff that goes between the tile - it's available in a bunch of different colors.  We chose a sandstone-like color for the grout.  Grout is applied with a special grout float - kind of a thin sponge bonded to a board.  You just dump some grout on the tile, and work it back and forth, forcing it into the space between the tiles.

After adding the grout, you scrub the tile clean with a sponge, and you're done.  Of course, that's a short sentence about a miserable job - the whole grout/cleaning/sealing is about the most tedious process of the whole project.

With the floor done, all that's left it the ceiling and trim.

In any case, we now had a great looking floor.  We're almost done - Next, I'll install the ceiling.

For the ceiling, I decided to use vinyl soffit material.  I had intended to use aluminum, but when I looked at it at the lumber yard, I couldn't find a single piece that wasn't dented or deformed.  I figured, if they couldn't keep it on the rack without damage, I'd never be able to get it home and installed.

The vinyl worked pretty well - I used some flat head screws, and made sure to leave them a little loose, to allow for expansion and contraction of the vinyl.  The only hard part was cutting the holes for the recessed lights, and even that was pretty easy.  The ceiling went up quickly, and looked nice when it was done.

The ceiling looked nice, when finished. 

For trim, I decided on painted pine - it's relatively inexpensive, and easy to work with.   At Home Depot, I discovered I could save a bunch of money by buying a "contractor pack" of base trim, containing at least twice as much as I needed.  The price per piece was so much less, it was a no-brainer.  Unfortunately, not having a use for the excess, I ended up throwing it away.

I also bought a power miter saw for the trim work, and quickly figured out I should have bought it at the beginning of the project - it would have been perfect for cutting all the framing.

In any case, I was able to finish the trim in relatively short order.  I painted it before installation, then touched up to cover the nail holes.  As soon as it was done, we ordered furniture.  The project was complete!

We have most of our meals at the table - we have a perfect view of the lake!

We leave the patio doors into the house open while we're there.

Kodak like it!

Our total for the project was a shade under $10,000 - much less than any of the sun room companies would have charged to do the work.  In addition, I think the results were at least as nice (actually, I like our room better.

This room isn't perfect - it's long and narrow, so it's difficult to accommodate a large group.  As a practical matter, we didn't have an option there - adding width would have increased the cost and complexity of the project exponentially.

The heat pump works well, although we don't need the air conditioning too often.  We need the heat in the winter, although the afternoon sun heats the room up quite well.  Although I did much of it myself, Carter was a huge help - several tasks would have been nearly impossible without help.  It's also nice to have someone to bounce ideas off, especially since we didn't have a set-in-stone design.

Movie Review - "People Will Talk"

I'm a big Cary Grant fan - I love all his old movies, many of which are classics - check out Father Goose or Bringing Up Baby if you want a lighthearted romantic comedy.  A couple of my other favorites are Operation Petticoat (a WWII comedy) and Arsenic and Old Lace.  Of course, my tastes run to screwball comedies.  If you like something with a little suspense, you might like North by Northwest or Notorious - they're both good, and stand up when compared to more modern movies.

I was browsing the movies on Netflix, looking for something to kill a couple of hours, when I noticed a Cary Grant movie that was unknown to me:  People Will Talk.  The movie was made in 1951, but it has the look and feel of a 40's film.  It's billed as a comedy, but it has some touching moments.

Grant plays Dr. Noah Praetorius, an doctor/teacher who is unconventional and at odds with Professor Elwell, a nasty little man who is determined to cause trouble.  Elwell is played by Hume Cronyn, a character actor that's been in a bunch of shows - you might recognize him from Cocoon.

While this is not Grant's best work, it's an interesting movie for a couple of reasons.  Most unusual for a romantic comedy of its era, the love interest (Deborah Higgins, played with some depth by Jeanne Crain) is an unmarried, pregnant woman.  The father of her child, who she "didn't know well enough", didn't know about the pregnancy, and was killed in the service.  I was shocked that this subject was handled reasonably, and without moralizing or contorting the plot to remove any responsibility for her actions.  I've never seen Crain in anything else (or if I did, I didn't recognize her), but she did a nice job here.  I loved the scene where she realizes Dr. Praetorious is in love with her - you can see her transformed in that instant from a scared girl to a woman who knows she's got him right where she wants him.  It was a small, but nice, moment in the film.

Although the romance is a big part of the story, there's no real conflict there.  From the moment you see them, you know how that part is going to turn out - and there's no "boy loses girl" part of the story.  The conflict in the plot is due to the actions of Professor Elwell, and involves Dr. Praetorius' companion, Mr. Shunderson (Finlay Currie).   There's something a little odd about Shunderson, and we can't quite figure it out until the climax.  I won't spoil it here, other than to say it's an odd and touching story.  Shunderson puts Elwell in his place convincingly at the end - I would have given him a standing ovation, except for the fact I was alone in my basement at the time (and, of course, being dead, Currie wouldn't have appreciated it, anyway).

If you've got a little time, and you want to watch an unusual, classic movie, give this one a try.  It's not rolling-on-the-floor funny, but you'll get a couple of chuckles.  You may also think a bit about human relationships, and just what it is that makes a person worthwhile.