Two more rooms tiled.

Over the last week I've been busy each evening, cutting the last of what seemed like an endless amount of tile for the mudroom area. The tile had to be fitted around the legs of the bench, around the cabinets and up the walls in the bathroom. I knew we were cutting it close with the light colored tile, but figured there would be plenty. As I fitted the final tiles around the sink I opened the last box of tiles. There would be six tiles left over (out of more than fifity cases).

The last two tile to be cut were tricky however, as I had to cut a three gang switch out of the center of one and a plug out of the other. Surprisingly, I did both cuts on the first attempt - without breaking the tile. But as I laid the tile today I realized I had cut the holes a little low in the tile - too low to fudge. So it was time to cut two more. It took five tries to cut the two tiles, leaving only one spare tile. That was far too close for my liking but we did have enough and that is all that counts. I'll polish off the grouting tomorrow.

Now, there is ony the small bit of tile by the front door to complete and that has to wait until the finish carpenter installs the last of the trim. I can hardly wait!

-grampa dan

Have a heart

The theme of our house on the outside is hearts. Many are hidden and subtle, carved into the trees and rock work. Once noticed, however,they are obvious and abundant. The trim has literally thousands of hearts routed into the accent centers. Even these from a distance look like a subtle pattern, painted and glazed various shades of brown and blending into the woodwork. But at each intersection of the large 8" wide trim a larger heart will be installed. And for good measure we'll paint each of those hearts bright pink as per special request by Janis.

We'll be creating scores of heart shaped blocks for the task. This pile represents about one third of them.

Each day more pieces are added to our giant jigsaw puzzle, bringing it ever closer to completion.

-grampa dan

Slow but steady

The MultiCam CNC router has been running for more than 60 hours straight and will for at least another two days to create the bulk of the remaining outside trim for the house. The ladies of our crew are busy painting up a storm, first with three base coats and then the four layers of glaze. As fast as the painting is done Peter is fastening the pieces into place. He's also spending time up o n the roof, finishing the painting and installing the trim on the upstairs dormers, the hardest task yet to finish. The front two are done save for final paint and the back two are well underway.

The back patio area is also progressing nicely. The uppoer painting is almost done and the trim only needs one more coat of glaze to finish it off. This and the front window need the mullion trim to finish them off. When the router is finished up the current tasks that work will begin.

The front porch area is getting it's final glazes and is looking pretty fine. I still have a little routing to do for the front door trim but that will be underway within a few days. Inside tile work is contuinuing with the all of the last tile cut and fitted for the mud room. That leaves only the last few remaining tile in the mudroom bathroom and the front entry. I'll sure be glad to get off my knees. There was a LOT of tile in this house with a seemingly endless number of cuts. The good news is it looks fabulous done and the house is a breeze to keep clean with all tile floors.

The contractor signs have now been removed from the front lawn and have been freshened up and delivered to our contractors whoi did such a great job for us.

The house is looking better each day and feeling more like home as well.

-grampa dan