Early Big Snow (Day 755)

I've been diddling around on the house for the past few weeks, finishing the backsplash tiling, hooking up the ceiling speakers and volume controls, and preparing for the final naildown of the upstairs flooring. Also did a major clean/organize of the garage to make room for my (new to me) Delta unisaw. Picked up this 10-yr old unit on Craigslist from a hobbyist in Bainbridge. He was downsizing his shop, to my benefit. Went there to look at it only knowing it was a 3-hp 10" cabinet saw; on inspection it is a 5-hp 220v saw with router table, Makita plunge router, and rolling saw base. Sweet--I cleaned up on this one. Then I had to wire the outlets for 220v (match outlets to saw), make up a long extension cord, and make some space for it.

Yesterday morning we awoke to a rude suprise. It was snowing up here in Paradise by the Bay. Not supposed to do that—we left the snow behind in Denver. To make matters worst, it snowed all day, blew all night and turned into a major winter scene. 6" on the flats, 12" elsewhere. Managed to buy one of the last snow shovels at the True Value store, and am going out to this morning get some snow melt stuff. If it turns cold (as forecast), any ice will be with us for a few weeks. Otherwise, all is well. Upstairs bath cabinets are scheduled for delivery tomorrow, the floor guy will get up here when the roads clear, and there is a big turkey in the frig. No worries.

Tiled Backsplash (Day 734)

One of the many things that I've let slip is the tiled back splash in the kitchen. It was easy to avoid, since many other jobs had a higher priority, like the bathrooms. Well, as the punch list gets shorter, this one surfaced on my spouse's radar screen. We've had the tile for months, so there was no excuse to not start the back splash.

She had picked out a beautiful 3" x 6" tile (i.e. $$$), hand made in Portland by Pratt & Larson. The glaze is a translucent light green, with a crackled surface. Low fired ceramic, like butter to cut. However, laying these tiles had been worrying me because Nancy likes thin grout lines. It wasn't going to happen in this case because the hand-made tiles are a bit irregular, like ±1/16" around the margins. That was fine; they definitely have a Craftsman feel to them, which is what we wanted.

We settled on 3/16" spacers for the 3" x 6" subway tiles, which we laid in a running bond pattern (50% offset on each layer). The back splash behind the range top was a piece of cake to lay up. Its about 9' long and 18" high (below the cabinets) to 36" high (below the hood), so the only cutting to do at at the ends. Conversely, the back splash continues around the full counter top, all the way to the appliance garage (surface mounted, front hinged cabinet for coffee stuff and toaster). This part of the back splash is only 5.5" high, so it involved cutting the second row of tiles at the window sill and around two outlets. Then the tile goes up the wall around two window units.

This is easy enough, but you have to keep an eye on where these will come out on top of the window—they all have to be at the same level (height about counter top)—because from here up we have to lay three full rows and make them come out parallel to the bridge board that ties the two blocks of hanging cabinets together.

We're not quite there yet, but I have my eye on this issue and will force the elevations to be the same by fudging here and there on the spacing of the tiles as they climb the wall. We have another days worth of cutting and laying, then it will be time to caulk, grout and seal the tiles. Its looking good so far; it'll be even better when its done.

2 Years and Counting (Day 730)

October 28, 2010. Two years and counting.
Here is our crude timeline for the house project.

Oct. 28, 2008. Broke ground with a big hole.
Feb. 14 , 2009. Ellis's finished framing.
Feb. 28, 2009. Roofs on, house is "dried in."
Aug. 15, 2009. Plumbing passes pressure tests.
Aug. 28, 2010. Rough electrical passes inspection.
Sept. 20, 2009. Dry wall installed and mudded out.
Jan. 18, 2010. All cabinets installed downstairs.
March 25, 2010. American Clay (plastering) finished
April 27, 2010. Passed final inspection.
May 14, 2010. Moved in—boxes everywhere.
Oct. 28, 2010. Two year anniversary of project.
July 25, 2011. 1000 days on the project. No blogging after this.

Some things just have to end gracefully.