July 20-22 -- progress on many fronts

The last two days we have been busy -- tiling, painting, staining -- Sandy, Kylie, Udo, me ... with Abby providing moral support.

I did some calculations and figured that I had another 145 full tiles or cut tiles to lay once the 90 tiles were down. On the 20th I laid 28 tiles, working my way along the bottom of the stairs and into the bathroom. It's critical work, creating a walkway for me to work the sides with cut tiles. I also had to leave enough room at the bottom of the stairs for Udo to work.

On the 21st my plan was to start filling in the full-sized tiles that go along the perimeter but I realized that I was going to make more work for myself if I laid those tiles and then came back later to lay the cut tiles which in some cases are only a few inches wide. It was going to be much more efficient to mortar the entire strip and lay the full tile as well as the adjacent cut tile at the same time ... so I spent all of the 21st cutting tiles. I had to wrap that up a little after 3:30 to head into Port Loring for Mass. I have another 14-15 tiles to cut, mostly small 3 inch strips.

On Friday at 3pm I also took Jimmy Mathews to Smokey Creek -- he is guiding for the next week. His daughters (and their families) are arriving after he leaves and want to be able to use his boat. Kylie and Abby came along for the boat ride -- turn at the Elbow towards Port Loring, past the cottage that says "Goshen" on the rock and just past the brand new lots-of-windows cottage on the right ... it's about a 20 minute trip in the Whaler.

I was talking to Jimmy along the way (yelling, to be heard over the motor) and I guess that this lodge on Smokey lake is really something -- sleeps 40 with 15 boats/motors. He travels 3 miles up the creek with his canoe to get to the lake but the guests are flown in from wherever. He will be guiding 3-4 people but other groups are there at the same time. They catch a lot of fish, mostly bass -- 100+ per day -- catch and release except for the ones they eat. I'll pick Jim up next Thursday at 7pm.

After taking Jim to Smokey I went into Port Loring to pick up the mail and a load of tiles from Timbr Mart. -- 21 more boxes safely in the barn -- and then picked up another 21 boxes after Mass on Saturday. 9 remain. When I was cutting tiles on Saturday I was bringing the tiles down from the barn with the ATC & trailer, 5 boxes at a time along with 2 bags of mortar -- that is about the correct ratio too -- 20 tiles to 2 bags of mortar.

Meanwhile Sandy and Kylie put a first coat of paint in the bedroom. Sandy did the cutting along the edges and Kylie used the roller on the walls. Sandy also finished staining the pickets for the stairs. On Saturday Sandy worked all day putting the first coat of paint on the trim and the second coat of paint on the walls of the bedroom. The closet remains to be painted -- it has been primed but needs finishing. I can do that later in the week while waiting for tiles / grout to set.

Udo started on Friday sanding the stair treads, staining railings and then the treads. He stained his way down the stairs and exited through the basement door. He was back on Saturday morning -- put a coat of conditioner on the risers and put a coat of varathane on the treads -- again working his way down the stairs and out the door -- then came back late in the day (8 hours later) to put a second coat of varathane on the treads. He'll be back on Sunday to stain the risers (which is a different stain), lightly sand the treads and do the final coat on the treads. I'm not sure what the plan is after that -- either he or Sandy will then varathane the risers.

When Udo did the stairs up to the loft he was doing other paint work here at the same time so he was able to work at the stairs and then paint for the rest of the day ... with this smaller project basically he either goes back home where his wife Sheila has lots of projects for him to do ... or does some painting for other clients.

Jason, Lorraine & Gavin arrived on Friday around dinner time so we got together briefly that evening. On Saturday early a.m. Jason's cousins Bob and Larry arrived from Toronto along with their wives Sandy & Sandy (yes, that makes 3 Sandys and 1 Lorraine). They came over after dinner yesterday to tour the place. Bob and Larry have been up here before of course, but not since we rebuilt. In fact, Larry said that he was up here for his honeymoon and stayed in our old cottage (I guess that mom and dad were away) -- back when it was just the 20x20. That was a long time ago ... sometime in the early 70's because we have this framed picture of the cottage that Arlene, Philip and I gave Mom and Dad after the bedroom addition was put on that dates from 1981.

So -- back to the mortar today, actually starting to finish up some areas. The final tiles to be cut and laid will be the ones that intersect with doorways, which need to be precise cuts, measured once the adjoining tile is in place. For yesterday's cutting I was able to lay tiles on the floor and cut the edge tiles -- any slight variance in accuracy will be hidden by the baseboard. I have another 2-3 days work to finish up before grouting. There is also a small area under the stairs that I have to crawl into which will probably be last because the adjoining tiles need to be laid and mortar hard before I work on top of them. The end is in sight -- of course the games room remains to be done too, but that room is rectangular and I don't expect to do that room until September.

Doors -- will likely arrive on August 3rd, so the plan would be to pick up the bedroom and bathroom doors that day and install them. They will be pre-hung so it should go quickly. Of course there's lots of baseboard ... it really does end but sometimes it sure seems to stretch out.

The weather was beautiful yesterday and today and the upcoming week promises more of the same, getting warmer each day. Finally we have summer. Timing is perfect actually.

Sandy plans to take the truck into Sudbury tomorrow to pick up the new beds which will go in the bedroom upstairs and the existing furniture there will move to the basement bedroom -- the bunks, double bed and dresser. Ultimately we'll have yet another bed in the basement bedroom -- it's large and the idea is that it will be overflow / kids sleeping area with two sets of single bunks and the double, or two double/single bunks -- we'll sort that out later.

There's probably more but that's all I can think of at this point ... time for breakfast for me and Abby.