On the Cutting Edge

"Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason."

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations ix 33

On Saturday I finished nailing down the porch floor. I got out the trusty pneumatic floor nailer and had at it.

Since the threshold of the door extended over my ledgerboard i got to go "old school" and hammer in nails too:

I told Lisa I would have the whole thing done in an hour, but it really took me two and a half.

That was where I left everything on Saturday because we had guests coming in the afternoon to swim with the girls and stay for dinner.

On Sunday afternoon I snapped a line along the edge of the porch to even my boards up. I had let them "run wild" because I couldn't be sure how tightly each would butt against the house.

I put a new blade in the circle saw and with as steady a hand as I could muster I sawed the edges. Hence today's title:

I then sanded the the top of the cut edge to round it off a bit. Then I hit all the end grain with wood hardener. It looked so good, I did the entire porch with hardener for good measure. After waiting 4 hours I used wood filler to plug up gaps since the tongue never completely fills the groove. I didn't want little openings for water to migrate into.

After that was set up I hit the edge with 220 grit sandpaper and put a final coat of wood hardener over what I had just sanded.

This morning I got up early and put a second coat of stain over the whole porch. Tomorrow we should be able to walk on it.

Like Marcus Arurelius I have sound reasons for everything, but it certainly doesn't lead to the short cut!