Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Beginning Day Four

I admit I chuckle every time I remember my hubby saying, "This should be done in 3 days." I guess no one ever calculates contruction times right! This was what was completed yesterday:

Because this is natural stone, it doesn't have the honeycomb like pattern on the bottom the way man-made tiles like ceramic and porcelain tiles have, therefore it takes longer for them to set. Consequently, the tile man has to keep a path open so he doesn't stand on any tile and move them. Hubby couldn't resist getting a close-up, almost lost his balance, and guess what? He moved a tile! Thankfully it had recently been put on and the tile man was able to set it back in place.
Here's a closer view, in front of the bathtub. It's hard to really appreciate the tile, since they're all full of dust that continues to settle. Once everything is cleaned up it'll be easier to see.

Here's the tub area. Yes, that's a floating ladder leaning on the wall. It's there to help keep the tiles in place as they dry.

Another close-up. The dark shiny tile over the travertine is the marble border that will go around the tub area. Smaller travertine tiles will go over that, to give it an interesting design. They couldn't put more tiles until the bottom ones set, otherwise the weight from the top tiles would move the bottom ones and they'd be totally messed up. The 16X16 tiles weigh 10 lbs each (I weighed them myself). The smaller tiles are 4X4, but once you stack them up they're real heavy too. The men showed up at 8:00am, while I was doing my morning devotions (I wasn't expecting them till 9:00). I'm glad they're here bright & early, so they can finish up sooner. I'm so excited to see my completed bathroom, and get rid of the dust!!!
I had to go buy an additional 20 of the larger tiles, since the design was modified a bit and we decided to go with more of the large ones. This means I'll probably be returning some of the small tiles, which is fine since square foot-wise they're more expensive than the large tiles. It's a good thing too: hubby is talking about redoing the small bathroom as well, since the weather is favorable now. I can't imagine having all this construction going on in the middle of summer when the weather is in the 90's and the humidity is something like 120%. We have zero humidity right now, and the weather has been in the 70's and breezy. I pray God will provide us with the means to get this done. We're commited not to get into debt, so I'm trusting God to make this happen. Not a problem for Him, that's for sure.
More to come!

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