Progress in the kitchen, and a minor setback in the bathroom.

Andrew and I spent much of this weekend with paintbrush or roller in hand. We spent hours carefully sanding the kitchen ceiling, then vacuumed away all of the dust before putting 2 coats of clear satin polyurethane on the cypress beadboard. The end result: it looks fabulous! The natural color and grain of the wood really pops. It just needs a bit of simple trim moulding where the ceiling meets the wall, and it's done.

Andrew applying the second coat:


The ceiling after 2 coats of clear polyurethane:

Meanwhile, I started priming the newly-textured walls. The kitchen cabinets are due to be delivered and installed next Wednesday. Our goal was to prime and paint the kitchen, at least the parts that won't be covered by cabinets, this weekend. We managed to prime, but haven't painted yet. There's still time, so we will be over at The Cottage one or two more evenings after work to finish that.

Tiling of the bathroom floor was to have begun tomorrow (Monday), but our contractor, J, stopped by on Saturday and informed us that the bathroom floor is not level. Apparently, he shot a level line with his laser level, and discovered that one side of the room is one inch lower than the other. (Why he didn't check the level of the floor before now, and before giving the tilesetter the go-ahead is beyond me. Wouldn't cha think that would be important to know??)

J's suggestion for how the tile guy could maybe "camouflage" the problem (i.e., using baseboard moulding-!) was not warmly received. Needless to say, it has been decided that the bathroom floor will be made level before any tile work begins.

Since the plan, before discovery of the off-kilter floor, was to begin laying the bathroom tile tomorrow, Andrew and I had planned to pre-seal the hex tile, as recommended by the manufacturer, this weekend. So, we went ahead and sealed the tile today, even though the floor installation is temporarily on hold.





We sealed 60-something sheets of hex tile. Not difficult, but a slow process. We got them all done, and the tiles are now spread out on the bathroom and kitchen floors while they dry completely.

Which is helpful for seeing how the tiles will look after installation: