I have kept myself fairly busy this weekend. A lot of sewing, I have to admit, but I put today aside for "house" work and wood. I split wood for a while this morning before it got too, too hot and while the splitter was in the shade. I am making good progress on the last rack.
When I couldn't take it anymore, I went in and (after some recovery) decided I could tackle the marble tile on the island. I wasn't committing to cutting the tiles at the north end (too much set up...I couldn't even think about it), but I thought I could at least get it started. And that's what I did.
First I took out the sink so that I wouldn't damage it. (And
just in case I went crazy and did manage to cut the tile to fit around the hole.) Then I started to remove tiles and lay them in the foyer so I could finalize the layout. I removed tiles from the west side and as I got most of them removed, the weight of the tiles on the overhanging edge made the whole counter tip up and dump the remaining tiles on the floor!!
Aaahhhh....quelle disastre!!
Fortunately nothing landed hard on my toes, but I did lose two of the three tiles that fell. (I think I managed to hang on to one of them.)
On the bright side, I have some tiles I can practice my cutting on to see if it's any different than cutting porcelain and I have some smaller pieces in case I need to bring a colour sample to match something. Yes, let's look for silver linings.
The real silver lining is that I still had enough tiles with four good clean corners (I have quite a number with one damaged corner) with one left over so I felt like I had some choice of which pieces to use.
I went and found Troy and pulled him in from the field where he was discing (or something) in his little field. He was gracious enough to come in right away and fasten down the counter. Once that was done, I dove in.
I got the nine tiles in the main part put in and that's about where I ran out of energy and ran out of tile adhesive. So that was it for the day.
I was worried about getting all the corners to match but I think I did pretty well. I was also worried about matching the height of the tiles because they're quite uneven. That was not quite a successful, but will have to do. We still haven't decided what we're doing about sealing the cracks. Troy is not so keen on silicone suddenly and I can't find red grout. If you have any suggestions, let me know!
Troy has not been doing too much in the kitchen since spring has sprung and he felt the pressure of working on his garden.
On the good side, it is looking wonderful this year. So neat and orderly and weed free.
He abandoned last year's pretense of "not doing a garden" and has planted lots and lots. I think it's all in the ground now. Broccoli, cauliflower, popping corn, sweet corn, meal corn, parsnips, potatoes, peas, tomatoes, mildish peppers, and maybe I've forgotten some. He's putting carrots in in July. He has been visiting the local town compost supply (from leaf collection primarily) and picking up loads in his pickup truck. Then it seems to be a race of when he can empty the load and get another one!
He also has gotten the sprinkler system up and running this year which is good with the weather we've been having...crazy hot!
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