Who's Counting?

   Putting the finishing wax coats on the basement floor is on hold. The wax that was recommended to us has become an elusive item. We might be able to get it this next week...or not. Ed was hoping to get the floor done before family arrived for Thanksgiving, but I don't have any hopes for that happening. We need to put down five coats, then burnish it.

   Ed has shifted gears and began working on the front columns. We really wanted to have these rocked, but the cost was prohibitive. If Ed uses shingles, it will be about 10% of the cost of having rock installed. There are four columns in front of the house, four in front of the garage, and the same number at the back of the house. Like so many things, it starts one little shingle at a time.

   I have had the tile for the kitchen and bathroom backsplashes for several weeks, but just stalled out on getting anything done. I finally stopped procrastinating and broke out the trowel. My favorite part about the backsplash tile for our bedroom is that they sit very tightly together and don't have to be grouted! Once I managed some forward motion, it took very little time to do. The floor tile in this bathroom is silver travertine, and I like the way the grays in the backsplash tie the countertop granite and the floor together.

  Ed continued to work on the columns as weather permitted. The porch overhang gives him some cover, but if the wind is blowing and the rain is coming down hard, it's not worth the aggravation. He's finding he can get about a column per day completed.






    I got the upstairs bathroom backsplash finished so quickly, I thought I'd do the kitchen while I had some forward movement going. It wasn't until I got the first section up that I realized the plan was for the kitchen backsplash to be two tiles high, not three. I had to quickly pry them off the wall. Did I know where the scraper was? No...but I was in the kitchen, and I did know where a spatula was. Hey...it worked.

Fortunately the mastic was easily wiped off the wall with a wet sponge and I started over. This time, two rows high and with a 1" pencil trim to top it off. The honey onyx is a good match for the stove, and is the same color as the yellow flecks in the countertop. I'll grout it next week.

   Ed had one rain delay and one day lost to a trip into town, but he has finished the shingles on two of the four front columns. When they are done, he'll put a row of green trim at the top of the shingles, a capstone, and encase the upper part of the column in a wood sleeve painted white. Only six more columns in the front and eight in the back. If we're lucky we might actually get that many sunny days before spring.