We are tiling machines

Today, Greg & I started tiling our master bath using 1 inch hexagon tiles. We first did a dry run and cut all the tile to fit. Then we popped out white tiles and replaced them with some black ones to make a flower pattern. It was a fun time. Good thing Greg is good at math and with a ruler (and a good thing we had some cold ones waiting for us in the fridge). Tomorrow we grout and move on to the guest bath.

In case anyone is looking, we bought our tile from Luxe Tile- they have a great selection, are affordable and super nice.

5 steps closer...

I work at night, so Greg and I usually see each other for a few minutes in the early morning before I hit the hay. When I went to sleep this morning, these stairs did not exist. Greg and John worked all day long building the front porch steps out of some giant and very old treated pine boards that Greg's dad found for us. These boards were originally made for highway guard rails. What a lovely way to wake up.

Another busy week

Well, we started this project a little over a year ago. Anytime I ever feel slightly overwhelmed or as if we aren't making much progress, all I have to do is look back to old photos on our blog and I immediately feel world's better. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

Greg still says it feels like Christmas every morning. He wakes up super early, grabs coffee and walks nextdoor to work on the house. We have a pretty sweet living arrangement right now. Despite the baby ants, the semi-broken AC and the creepy, plastic, moldy tile shower, the house we are staying in is really not so bad, and we live right nextdoor. Many of you had the pleasure of experiencing life in our old house though, so you know we can live pretty much anywhere.

The new house is really,really coming along. The trim that Greg built is almost finished, tiling has begun, Greg is designing the kitchen cabinets and we have someone (and that someone happens to be THE rooster for all you David Sedaris fans out there) coming out to sand and finish our hardwoods in a few weeks.

Here are some photos of this past week here on Van Dyke. Jay is still painting the never-ending but beautiful trim work that Greg and John continue to build. G and his dad, Clark, are putting in the ceiling on the back porch. Greg, Clark and I tiled the laundry room floor in 3 hours last night. I finished grouting it all today and am pretty happy with the results of our first tiling project. We have 2 bathrooms left to tackle using the tiny mosaic hexagon kind, so wish us luck.

building a scaffold for Jay

The construction of the wingwalls of the front porch steps has also started. Here is a quick video of our mason Dan placing the VERY heavy granite on the walls. This granite was salvaged from the same orphanage our slate roof came from.