Bathroom tile begins, and the kitchen gets painted.

Today, our tile guy, Carlos, laid the hex tile in the bathroom. He was still at The Cottage working when we arrived at 7 p.m., poor thing. His helper was desperate to clean up and leave, after working for hours, since The Cottage is currently toiletless. Carlos did a great job! The new tile is completely level. I can't wait to see it after he grouts tomorrow. He'll be back on Thursday to start on the kitchen floor tile.
Bathroom floor, leveled:

The tile, after being set, before grout:

Closeup, pre-grout"

Tonight, we spent the second of two evenings painting the kitchen walls (or at least those parts of the walls that won't be concealed behind cabinets) before the new custom cabinets are installed. I really liked the paint color, "Friendly Yellow," on the paint chip, but was a little apprehensive at its yellowness when we first began painting.
Kitchen, after one coat of paint:

Andrew kept reassuring me, and since I tend to think that it's not fair to judge a paint color until it's completely dry, we plugged along and got as much painting done on Monday night as we possibly could. Today, after seeing the fully dried paint, I really like it.
Second coat, still wet:

I have yet to see it in natural daylight, or, of course, in the fluorescent glow of the new eco-friendly CFL fixtures.
I think the warm yellow will be a nice contrast for the cool pale blue tile and terra cotta floor tiles.

Tomorrow, cabinets get delivered and installed!

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:

Got sheetrock!

With the holidays, the work has been sporadic at The Cottage, but we were surprised to find J working today (Saturday). It seems the Gas Inspector showed up yesterday, and signed off on the gas line that will supply our new range. Since the electrical, plumbing, and gas rough-ins have all passed inspection, the gaping hole in our kitchen floor could therefore be covered. So today J nailed the subfloor back in place, and installed the last small section of Durock on the kitchen floor.


See? No hole!

The gas line installer will still need to come back next week, remove the pressure gauge that is still attached to our gas pipe for inspection purposes, and install the gas shutoff valve that is required by our local building code.

J informed us today that he has been notified that he must appear on Monday for jury duty. How lovely! We are, of course, hoping that he doesn't get selected, or that the trial doesn't last long. In the meantime, next week J's crew should be able to finish the gas line, install the cypress beadboard ceiling in the bathroom, and plaster the rough drywall in both rooms.


The latest view of the bathroom, with the plumbing rough-in for the console sink, and Durock where the subway tile wainscoting will be soon:


Bathroom floor, with Durock in place on the floor, ready to be tiled!

Since the walls should be paint-ready within a week, Andrew and I are busy looking at paint chips, in the always-difficult quest to select a paint color for the kitchen.

I'm not sure I even remember what our new cabinets look like at this point, but we'll pick something soon, and hope we don't end up repainting later.