The tiling in the main living space got finished,
and grouted.
The trim got painted:
See Kai's weave poles over to the right? I tied those poop bags to them so the guys knew not to throw them out when they got rid of all the trash in the yard :)
Trim is back on, looking sharp!
The guys came up with this idea for the threshold to the kitchen, using the leftover scraps from other tiles they had cut. I thought it was a very nice touch and a great surprise!
While I'm on the subject, I really can't say enough about Eddy and Walter, the two-man Dream Team who have been doing most of the work. They're at my house over 10 hours a day. They always show up on time. And not only are they reliable, they also do excellent work. And fast! Pretty much everything I've posted up until now, except for the structural beam replacement, is their work.
In addition to everything else I already posted, over the last 2 days they also framed the soap niche in the shower,
installed the box for the bathroom vent,
and hung the new closet doors.
The guy who Zoltan (my contractor) used to replace the structural beam was the same guy he used for pouring the new concrete in the shower floor. This was going on at the same time that Eddy & Walter were tiling, painting, grouting, and drywalling.
This whole sequence happened in about a day, starting from this (see the hole in the floor?):
to this:
then this:
then more concrete, et voila- a shower floor.
That same day, 2 days ago, the kitchen cabinets went from here
to here.
Starting to look like a house, right?? The next two jobs were the two that I had been anticipating the most- the kitchen countertops, and the tiling of the shower. I talked to Eddy & Walter the night before they were going to do the shower (which was yesterday). Walter had the picture I had drawn, but it was just a sketch and I found out that he really wasn't clear on exactly what I wanted. It was a good thing I got home from work before they left for the day. We went into the bathroom with the different kinds of tiles, we talked it out, I drew on the walls, and Walter helped explain it to Eddy, who was going to be doing the tiling and who doesn't speak as much English as Walter does. I was very relieved after we talked and I knew that they were clear on my design. I had been worried that they were working so fast, they would tile the shower while I was at work before I had a chance to talk to them about it. I was also happy that Zoltan didn't ask me for more money because of all the small tiles I used in my design. It was a lot more than I think he was anticipating, and those sheets of small tiles aren't cheap. I think after the whole trash fiasco, he figured he owed me one. I agree.
That evening I also brought home that day's assignment- ceiling fans and a bathroom light fixture. My good friend Beverly owns several rental properties and has a lot of experience buying this sort of thing, so she came with me to help out. And given my normal speed of decision making, this was a Very Good thing.
They put the living room fan up the next day (yesterday) but since I don't have a picture of it from the store, here's a sneak peek from when I got home last night:
The kitchen fan isn't up yet. Neither is the bathroom fixture, but here it is in the box:
I headed off to work the next morning with a teeny bit of butterflies, knowing that when I got back home I would have kitchen countertops and I would see my shower tile design in real life for the first time!
I also had a new assignment- come home with a bathroom vanity. Not all that easy of a task, considering the teeny amount of space I have to put one. Most teeny vanities are of the low-grade, 49-bucks variety and I didn't want that. I finally found the perfect one on Home Depot's website. They were in stock at one of the local stores, so off to HD I headed after work. I also wanted to look at faucets, showers, and medicine cabinets. It's all coming together, FAST, and I need to keep up!
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