June 25 -- I must be Italian ...

Yes, the Italian is finally showing through. Working with mortar, laying ceramic tile ... yes, that's the Italian half. I think that my dad was a wannabe Italian with all the concrete that he poured here at the cottage or perhaps it was my mom's influence ?

So -- I laid the full size tiles yesterday in the darkroom -- that took the morning -- 21 tiles. Doesn't sound like much, eh ? (that's the Canadian Italian). Like anything else I'll probably build up speed. I used a full bag of mortar mixed in three batches so I now have a sense for coverage and speed -- i.e. how much mortar I can mix and get it down within the working time limit for the mixed mortar, which is 3-4 hours. Basically, if organized and in an open area laying full-sized tiles, I can probably mix a full bag of mortar and get those tiles laid.

If I do the math, I did 48 square feet in 4 hours or 12 square feet per hour. If I kept up that pace, ignoring time for cutting etc. it would take me 100 hours to do 1200 square feet -- which is about what I have to do for the entire floor. Hmmmm. Add in cutting time and I probably have 3 weeks work -- of course that is ignoring laying Ditra and grouting but it's also ignoring that I'll get faster. Mixing more mortar at a time will make it faster too.

My intent was then to go for a bike ride so I checked the Doppler and guess what -- a thunderstorm system was headed our way. By the way -- said thunderstorm never materialized in our area although I could see the clouds.

So ... I decided to try my hand at cutting tiles. I got out the little Home Depot $88 tile saw and cut my first tile for the doorway and ... surprise ... no problem. Well, mostly no problem. I wanted to cut the tile at a slight angle and that is not going to be easy, but I only have to do that a couple of times in total. I decided to go ahead and cut the rest of the tiles for the room -- two more for the doorway and another seven for the side under the sink. I was able to walk along the side of the room not disturbing the freshly laid tiles and still-wet mortar to do my measuring and place those cut tiles, not mortared, in their place. It went quite quickly and the cuts were clean -- I was surprised. I'm hoping that the tiles that we use for the rest of the floor cut as easily. They are thicker and larger.

In the large areas that I have to tile the ratio of cut tiles to whole tiles will be small, but once I get into areas such as the bottom of the stairs and the bathroom there will be a lot of cutting. I still don't know how I'll manage to cut around the stair risers and posts but that is off in the future.

Sandy worked in the garden -- we're already eating lettuce -- zucchini will be soon by the looks of things. She planted a couple of weeks late due to our travel schedule but we will shortly be getting many of our greens from the garden. Afterwards she went for a kayak ride which was some work because the aforementioned threatened thunderstorms were producing waves and wind.

Not much else to report -- it's raining now but not supposed to last. Today I'll get out for a ride and also need to go into town to return that extra sheet of plywood and talk to Steve regarding ordering the doors for the basement rooms. It would be useful to have a door on the bathroom, for example .... I expect to also lay the cut tiles today.

After this I'm kind of on hold for a couple of weeks waiting for the tile to come in. I'll finish up the little bit of drywall work, prime those areas, perhaps lay the Ditra in the bedroom and bathroom, move all the boxes and stuff into the games room, and finish off the stairway (yes, those pickets). I also have a couple of trim pieces that need to be cut for the upstairs. I can finish the darkroom -- connect the sink, finish the electrical work for the darkroom and bathroom, build Sandy's shelves for the laundry room --I guess that I won't run out of things to do !!

Whoops -- I'm late for my breakfast -- I'm surprised that Abby isn't bugging me for hers, but that is because she is only allowed into the den by invitation. I'm sure that she is sleeping on the floor right outside the doorway.

Onward ....