i am building a wall partition and i have a couple questions. in the inside corner where the new drywall meets the existing wall (which has a knockdown texture), and in the corner where the new drywall meets the ceiling (which also has a knockdown texture), what is the strongest way to tape both of those joints and then apply knockdown texture to the new drywall, blending it in with existing wall and ceiling texture? i also have an area with butted seams, one side which is new drywall and the other a knockdown textured wall. do i need to sand down the texture a few inches in, tape the corners and seams, and blend the texture? is this a job for a professional, or is it something that a pretty handy person could do? also, i've never done taping and texturing before. thanks a lot.

I recently remodeled the kitchen in my townhouse, including removing a small interior wall around a pass-through to the dining area. I have a concrete ceiling with popcorn texture, and where I removed the wall the bare concrete is exposed. It looks like for the finished areas there is a thin coat of something (plaster?) on the concrete, with the texture on top of that. What is the best (best=compromise of acceptable finish and do-it-yourself friendliness) way to finish the bare concrete to blend with the surrounding finished popcorn? (One other note, in case it makes a difference: there were metal tacks of some kind anchoring the top of the metal studs I removed. When I popped them out, or maybe when they were originally put in, they left divots in the concrete. So I'll need to fill in those divots, too.) I hope I stated this clearly. If it helps, I could make photos available. -Jeff