Marble Tiles Placed

So the last job on the list before the return to work was very, very close to being completed by 7 pm Sunday evening. The marble was purchased from Matrix Marble in Duncan and is all quarried here on Vancouver Island. The blue-gray tiles come from the west coast near Zeballos, and the black ones from another quarry near Carmanah. We worked out a pattern and had Matrix cut us several sizes to suit. (See Monday, July 19 posting) Installation was pretty straightforward but required the odd pause-and-reflect moment. We're happy to report no tiles have had to be chipped up from being incorrectly located. The remaining work to be done is just cut and fit a few tiles around the edges, then a LOT of grouting.

Preparing for Floor Tile

This week (my last before returning to work after 14 months off) will be spent getting the marble tile installed on the main floor of the house. Today's job was cutting and fitting the uncoupling membrane. This is the bright orange waffle-textured material that is meant to prevent any of the cracks in the concrete sub-floor from transferring through to the tile and grout lines in the finished floor.

After seeing it all in place, we now have a good idea how the house would look in wall-to-wall orange shag carpeting. I guess it's not too late...

Shingling Done!

We completed the shingling late on Friday afternoon, last week. Scaffold was all down and returned by 10 am Saturday. The remainder of the weekend was spent constructing and installing the downspouts so we are now ready for the wet weather.

Garage/Office Shingling Work Progresses

A great run of hot, sunny weather has allowed a major push on the shingle installation on the upper storey of the building. The back (east side) was completed last Monday and the scaffold moved around to the front where the final shingles are oh so close to being completed.

At this stage, I'm really looking forward to not having ladders in my life, and spending a week or so of tile setting on my hands and knees.

Trimming Cork Floor

The cork floor in the kitchen and dining area is now installed, so the only job left was to get a good, true edge on the radius where the edge of the cork will mate up against the marble tiles. The router was pressed into use using a centre-point jog on an 88" radius which worked very well.

Good Jobs for a Rainy Saturday

We woke up this morning ready to begin the final building siding project; shingling the upper garage. The scaffold was built and a big inventory of shingles have been pre-dipped in stain thanks to a major effort from our weekend visitors Jan & Stephanie (Karen's sister and niece). The only problem was the first real rainfall we've seen in 5 weeks. That was OK, though as the 'indoor jobs' list has been building for just such an occasion.

So, Karen and I had a very productive day installing the pre-finished pine boards on the dining room ceiling, then putting down the click-lock cork flooring in the kitchen/dining area.

House Siding Complete

The last piece of horizontal bevel siding was applied to the upper Northeast corner of the house this past week. The site-built wooden scaffolding has now been taken down and used in combination with some rental metal scaffolding to allow a good platform for shingling the upper garage building.