Tag's Day

October 31, 2000 - July 21, 2015

I miss you bud.

Tomato Time

The Cherokee Purples are ripening. This ginormous one was ready to be picked today. Cracking on the ones in the background is common for this variety and doesn't detract from flavor. Cherokee Purple is the best tasting tomato I've ever eaten, ugly and all. And here are the two pups.

Cooktop

What a surprise. The granite cutter and cooktop installers both had time available and were able to coordinate to install the cooktop and downdraft today. Only about an inch of granite needed to be cut from the existing cutout but the first cut was a fraction of an inch too short so a second cut had to be made. Granite dust was everywhere and it took a couple of hours to clean that up. But the cooktop is amazing. Bob put on a pan of water, turned on the booster function and it boiled within seconds. Turned the burner to zero and it immediately stopped boiling. So that speed is what I have to adjust my cooking to. The downdraft blower sounds like a jet engine when on high, a major improvement over the downdraft that was built in to the JennAir. This is the Bosch 800 series induction cooktop and downdraft.

Frog in the Dahlia

This is why we don't use herbicides and live with weeds...

Hattie as a pup

Bathroom Pictures

Last pictures of the bathrooms that I'll post. We love the master bath now. It feels spacious and bright. The house feels updated and materials are higher quality.

Before pictures...

This is looking from the bedroom into the bathroom through the pocket door with the door to toilet stall to the right...

...shower to the left and very narrow walkway between to the sinks and closet. The shower was dark, the toilet stall was dark and cold, and the three doors opening into each other made it difficult to move around in the room.

The countertop was replaced, giant wall mirror removed, new floor tile, tile around wall... 

...door to toilet stall removed, new tile...

...new shower area and fixtures...

...pocket door to bathroom removed and replaced with the toilet stall door, now the toilet stall is open...

...looking from the bedroom into the bathroom.

Before guest bathroom...

Now with new countertop and backsplash, and the giant wall mirror removed.

Powder room before...

Powder room with new countertop and backsplash.

Miss Hattie

Ducks under the rockers

Remodel Update

It's almost finished. Until I post some photos there is this to ponder....

More Remodel

We're close to the finish line.

The noise and construction chaos frightened Tux so much she was chasing trucks down the road thinking she was left behind. The workers were leaving all the doors open so there was no way to keep her in the yard. She might be getting a little senile, or maybe the medications contribute to her confusion. Whatever, we'll all be glad when it's over.

These are horrible pics of the kitchen, but I'm posting them anyway. The colors are way off because of all the different lighting.

Bob is working on under counter lighting so you see the wire hanging there.

My new sink with doo-dads. It's big. I love it, dirty dishes and all.

View from the sink.

Yikes. This is dark! New countertop, sink and tile backsplash. Hattie's in there too if you can find her.

That's all for now.

Living in a madhouse

It's been crazy here the last couple days. The tile is finished in the master bath but my pictures don't do it justice. You can't even see the wave texture in the huge tiles in the shower. There's still quite a bit to do before it's ready to use (plumbing, sinks, shower track, mirrors, cabinets, door) and when I next get an urge to paint... really??!!...I'm going to go with a mink color to contrast with the tiles and pick up the counter and stone colors. That won't be any time soon though. Anyway, the tile is beautiful and exceptionally well done... my pictures are not.

The bathroom floor

The floor is pretty much done. Here it is grouted. They've used an epoxy grout that is totally waterproof and stain proof.





The countertop is quartz that picks up color in the rocks on the shower floor. We thought that tied the room together since the shower will be open. Even the paint color works. Very pleased! Monday the wall tiles start in this room while countertops in other rooms are removed. Tuesday new counters will be installed in those rooms.

Tile

Love these big tiles. They'll be going on the walls, too, along with some very neat wave-textured tiles. The shower floor will be cut stone. Notice the curve at the shower corner and the circle cut out for the toilet plumbing. Nice tile work! Oh, and the countertop was installed yesterday. Can't see it very well in this picture.

Afternoon update:

Stone tiles in the shower!

Tile Preps

This orange plastic stuff is being laid and the entire floor will be waterproof when all is done. 

First two pictures from last night show the walls and floor without the shower "pan" which is really a dropped box.

Here is the shower "pan" with the drain in place. The box is filled with a sandlike material that is packed down and becomes impermeable to water.

The plastic stuff on the floor is waffle-like and it gets troweled over with this white stuff. (This is the toilet stall.) The waterproofing and tiles will continue up the walls. It's a big job and I'm glad these guys know what they're doing. Our job was to pick grout colors today.