Tiling done, door in shower (Day 665)

Yoohah, the tiling and grouting are done on the second shower stall, which is in the guest bathroom. We need to finish it before the Harts visit next week, but it was just another (sort of major) project to get off the punch list. We'll call it the Dethloff shower for now, since they'll be the first guests to break it in. Likewise, the upstairs bedroom is being temporarily named the Dethloff loft. Go figure.

Finished the tiling last weekend, then started on the grouting. White, non-sanded grout 1/8" gaps. The box says 5 lbs will fill 12.5 square ft of 1/8" space on 6x6" tiles, which is what we probably have on average (mixture of 6"x8", 3"x6", and 2"x4" tiles). So off to Sliverdale and Home Depot to get grout on Monday. The tile covers about 100 sq ft of the shower (walls and ceiling), so the box formula indicated 8+ boxes of grout. I only bought 4 boxes (20 pounds) of grout since the formula seemed pretty whacked. Hells bells, it only took 1.5 boxes (7.5 pounds), so I don't know what idiot created the spreadage chart on the grout box. Nevertheless, the grouting is done and I have 3 boxes of grout to return to Home Depot. Total cost to grout was about $8 and another $15 to seal it all (a silicone based sealer). For the floor, I had a half box of sanded light gray grout which was just enough to finish the job.

Friday, Peninsula Shower and Tile came from Sequim to mount the door assembly. This one is relatively simple. 32.5" wide, 72" high clear-glass door, 3.8" thick. It will hinge on the left and open both in and out like the one in our master bath. Simple chrome hinges and handle; clean, attractive and easy to maintain with a squeegee. The door went in in an hour, then I grouted and sealed the floor (flat pebbles). Still have to caulk the margins of the tile and mount the shower fixtures, which include a single mixer unit (temp and pressure in one valve) and shower head, so it should go in easily (I hope). The last shower fixture job was a nightmare because I had the wrong cover for the valve, but we sorted that out in a week or so.

So, if everything goes well, we'll have the finished, entirely operable Dethloff shower done a few days before we need to use it. That's not so bad; don't even need to go to the clubhouse for showers like when we moved in last May.

Other stuff is going on when I'm tired of dealing with the shower. Nancy ordered and hung some drapes in the master bedroom (for her parents arrival). I screwed up my courage and put two Molley bolts into the gold-colored plaster wall. You only get one chance on this one, but after careful measurements I got the "Mackey table" mounted on the wall. We bought this table in Santa Fe in 2006 for our new house after admiring the one that Ned and Colleen Mackey had in their house in Denver. Four years later if looks just as good as we thought it would.

I put some of the overhead speakers in place. Had ordered them last winter, then sort of forgot about them and/or didn't want to generate any new drywall dust. However, they were using up floor space, so out came the utility knife, drywall saw, and screwdriver. The speakers in the living room went in easily, about an hour to do both. Then off to the upstairs bedroom where we had two rectangular speakers to mount high on the wall above doors. These took a bit of finagling to get them centered above the doors (studs on either side), but they came out fine. I went to mount the speakers in the downstairs den only to discover that I'd only ordered one (not a pair), so it went in and a second is in the pipeline. That leaves three to mount, 2 of which are 11 ft high in the kitchen. I'll do these when I rent the BIG folding ladder that I need to put up the hanging light fixture above the island. It goes at the peak of the ceiling, about 13 ft above the floor. So I'll need a 12 ft ladder.

I've discovered that I've fallen into a pattern of doing the easy jobs first and deferring the ugly ones. So each week I scratch some things off the list, only to find that the most onerous ones remain. The biggy is the upstairs bathroom (tile vanity and linen closet, shower and bath tile, floor tile, and toilet). At my current pace and level of enthusiasm, I suspect that this will be a winter project. No hurry, no worry.

12 yds of gravel, 1 to go (Day 649)

Nancy's got a paint brush back in her hand and has been knocking out some of the painted windows downstairs. Only one left to do is in the guest bathroom, but it needs primer and two coats of latex. It will probably get done as I work on the tile in there. Meanwhile, I've been working on getting all the gravel walkways around the house in place this past week, and I'm almost there. Earlier, Tim Hamm (Castlerock Landscaping) and I had built the 3 ft wide path around the south (bedroom) and east (backyard) sides of the house, but I wanted to get the remainder done before launching into the bathroom tile job. The first finished part of the walks took 2.5 yds of crushed rock (basalt, a black volcanic rock quarried locally), so Tim loaded his one ton truck up with 3 yds (7,000 pounds) of gravel and brought it over (ouch for the truck). We're using 5/8" minus, meaning everything finer than 5/8". It packs in pretty tight and makes a nice surface to walk on and will be relatively weed free.

We cleaned up the north (damp) side of the house, leveled it out, placed the bender board and Tim built two short walls against the house (photo to right). Once the landscape fabric was cut to size and nailed down, we just shoveled and wheeled gravel into the pathways. 3 yds of gravel is a bunch of gravel. But with one guy shoveling (me) and another (Tim) behind the wheel barrow we put laid it down in about 4 hrs. However, the Advil was much appreciated over the weekend. I wish I'd saved this job for Tony Crone, because he's never happier then when he's behind the business end of a shovel.


Last Friday, I had 6 more yds of gravel delivered to the driveway, and started in on the front yard paths. I made this little job last most of the weekend, but ran short by a yard. So one more trip to the Shine Quarry, and I should have all the rock in place (for now). We still haven't done anything with the backyard, which is fine for now since no one can really see it. Anyway, I have to leave something to do for next spring or summer instead of just sailing and crabbing.

P.S. Got that last yard today. Tim and I went down to the Shine Quarry, had 1 yd of 5/8" minus loaded and threw in about 50 half-man chunks for the little island near the sunroom (later in the fall). So all the gravel paths are done; the patios are next along with a large area of planting of shrubs and the lawn. Might go for a large putting green like Dr. Knott installed. Wonder if it helped his game any (probably knott).