Sat Dec 26th

Max's birthday was today! He is a middle aged 7 year old now. We have had him for 6 1/2 years and yes, I say we. Jennifer was with me when we picked him up as a 6 month old dog, so he has always known her. He is spoiled and was really spoiled yesterday. We actually bought him a cheeseburger of his own from McDonald's : )

Besides that it was Tiling Tiling Tiling!

As we finish up with the big tiles, we start to lay the smaller tiles in the entry-way. Tiling with 12 inch tiles is easier than with 20 inch tiles. They are lighter to handle, easier to cut and easier to level. We will finishing laying the tile on Sunday. The smaller tiles are made in Dallas, TX so we will always have a piece of TX wit us: ) The tile is installed underneath where the cabinets will be but we left out tiles where the knee-wall will be put up. We look forward to moving on from tiling.

Merry Christmas

Today we had a good Christmas, packing the house, watching ratatouille, cooking our last meal in the apartment (moving on Wed.), talking to the family (sorry if it was brief), quickly going to the house to wipe down the thinset from the tiles and finally spending the evening with a couple of Jennifer's friends.

Here are a few pictures from the day showing the tile in the hallway closets. We layed 28 tiles yesterday, 26 of which had to be cut. It went a lot smoother once we replaced the blade on the wetsaw. We also wanted to show the picture of the Christmas cactus, blooming on Christmas, that Stephanie's parents gave us 2 years ago. Here in Florida, we leave it outside in the Florida room and it loves it.

Dec 21st-23rd

More photos

Dec 21st-23rd

Wow, time is ticking! We have to move next week, then we have to go to a international scientific meeting and we're both presenting and we haven't come close to completing our poster our powerpoint presentation. And, we still haven't started the cabinets. Not to worry, it will get done one step at a time.

This is what was done this week:

Layed tile

Grouted Tile

Cleaned Tile

Changed outlets, fixtures and ceiling fans

Installed baseboards in rooms

Got carpet installed

Painted our living room accent wall a 2nd time (the paint was bad the first time)

Went to Home Depot, Lowes and Floor and Decor multiple times

Here are some photos:

December 18th

Today we got our new appliances in. We moved our old fridge into the garage for extra storage for leftovers and drinks : ) It looks more and more liveable by the day. Jennifer did a fantastic job grouting (around the fireplace is tough) and I continued to lay some tile. The next few days are going to be cold! Highs only in the mid 60s. Wow, but we'll still plug away at it.

Dec17th

Here are some photos of the tile before grouting and after grouting. We were so exhausted today because we woke up early after a late night and had some final school stuff to do and didn't get to the house until 2pm or so. We cleaned up the grout lines, moved a few things around and cleaned the garage because our appliances on being delivered on Friday. Then we went home, rented Julie & Julia, ate junk food (Mozarella sticks, Popcorn, Candy, Soda...) and fell asleep.

December 16th

Ok, I got a little behind on posting pictures. This week has been crazy. It was finals week for Jennifer and I which meant wrapping up the end of the semester, grading exams, posting grades, end of semester luncheons, work on the house and Our 3rd anniversary. So, the pictures won't show that we made heaps of headway but there was a lot of time spent in the decision process.

Here's what we did for our anniversary...

1) Worked at School

2) Grill some steaks (First time to cook at the house on a new grill), made a salad & some awesomely cooked mushrooms

3) Grouted tile

4) Removed grout because it was ugly (See it in the box after we threw it away)

5) Returned grout and got new grout

6) Picked up the rest of our tile

7) Grouted 1/4 -1/2 of our tile

8) Got home at 2am

December 13th

More tiling and a picture of our new dryer. It was a short day because we have work on Mondays but we still managed to lay down 5 boxes of tiles.

Dec 12th

Saturday was tiling, tiling and tiling. Marv (our next door neighbor) and all the other neighbors were out working in their yards because it was the first sunny and warm (Highs around 80) weekend in a couple of weeks. We were inside but Marv decided he would trim a couple of our oaks for us and our crape myrtle. He even cut up the oak wood for fire wood if we wanted to use it. He's such as nice guy. Anyways, we did quite a bit of tiling and had several cuts to do around the fireplace but we should be finishing up tile this week. Just in time for our appliances to arrive next weekend. Max had a good time and was worn out because he chased the water hose and actually found a rabbit to chase around. Fortunately, he didn't catch the rabbit but he ran completely around the house and made it to the front yard before he listened to me and gave up.

We are sore today. Tiling is definitely a physical job.

Dec 11th

Friday was cold for us with temps in the mid 60s and rainy during the day, with wind. So we decided not tile because we would be outside spraying water all around and it would be cold. Yes, we are Floridians now after 16 months of living here. It was a good choice as it was in the upper 50s and raining when we left (which is when we usually clean up). So we don't have any pictures because we changed out all but I think 4 outlets in the house. We had the power turned off all evening and used our headlamps to work in the dark. Max didn't know what was going on so he just followed us around everywhere.

Jennifer's Tiling Experience

I almost forgot to mention this... Shortly after the picture showing Jennifer tiling, I went outside to make more thinset and I came back inside to discover her covered in thinset. It looked like a toddler had grabbed a whole bunch of it and threw it at her. I came to help out and realized the handle on the trowel was also covered. Then, we were laying down tiles next to each other and she fell into the thinset that spread on the ground. To say the least, it was hilarious! She got much better after that but it was one of the few times were she was the dirty one and I was the clean one.

Max's Reward

Max has been so good at just hanging out while we work at the house so we got him a stuffed dog to play with. I think he likes it and throws it around and shakes it.

Dec 6th

We laid more tile today. We had to run and pick up 6 more boxes of tiles (48 tiles total) from the store. Today we only laid 6 boxes of tiles as compared to laying 13 boxes on Saturday. It makes a big difference having 3 vs. 2 people. Marv wasn't able to help us out again. I don't blame him, we were sore tackling it today. Also, we were working in tighter spaces and making more cuts which all slowed us down. Jennifer did a good job laying tile.

Dec 5th

Yesterday we decided to clean out our laundry room since our new dryer was delivered today. It has more buttons than our cars : ) Anyway, yesterday we cleaned it, painted it and purchased tile to tile it. So today we tiled it. Yeah, that simple... Well, we have never tiled in our lives, unless you count the 2-3 tiles we laid down during the "How To" class at Home Depot. Fortunately, we have a keen neighbor who stopped by and helped out. Marv was great. He came in there and said let's go. Next thing I know the tile saw that was delivered on Thursday was up and running and we were throwing down tiles in the laundry room as a warm up for the living room. Eight hours later, Marv feels it's time for him to go home and finish the Florida Gators football game (Dang they lost). Actually, he left because we ran out of the tiles. We couldn't carry them all in our car so we only had 16 boxes. Now they're on our floor, they look great and we're a little tired.