Aug 30-31 - momentous news !

I'm tiling the games room !! -- no, that's not it -- I'm a grandfather again ! -- that is definitely more interesting !

I mentioned in this blog many months ago that Jeffrey was going to be a dad ... well, it's happened. Emma came into the world early morning August 30th. She was delivered by c-section and is healthy -- 7 pounds 15 ounces. I haven't seen any pictures yet, he will be sending those to me shortly to post on the family website.

Life has its challenges. Jeffrey and Sara are no longer living together but are on good terms ... Jeffrey was there for Emma's birth. Hopefully things will continue that way and we'll be able to see Emma late September when we are in the Philadelphia area.

Sandy went down to Toronto to have her hair cut and stayed overnight with Joyce, arriving back home for dinner on the 31st.

I laid the Ditra in the games room & storage closet under the stairs on the 30th and started laying tiles on the 31st. Straight tiling is exhausting -- 10 + hours of mixing mortar and laying tiles. I did the entire center of the room leaving a border to walk around. That amounts to 63 tiles, which looks great but appearances are deceiving. It is just over half of the 125 tiles -- 7 more for the closet and 55 more on the perimeter, many of those requiring cutting -- all straight cuts.

Tiling has taken a toll on my equipment too -- mixing the mortar fried my 1/2 inch Dewalt drill. I let it labour too long and it smoked. It's dead. I tried a 3/8 Makita drill that was my Dad's and it was able to turn the paddle mixer while it was watery but not once the mix got thick ... it was starting to overheat so I gave up on that drill. So ... I used the 1/2 cordless ... which works but a) I have to be careful not to push it too hard and b) it drains a battery each mix. The battery is then so hot that it delays the charging -- luckily I have three batteries and chargers or I'd be running out of juice. These are 1 hour chargers and I just make it by the time I do the 4th mix.

So ... I called Sandy who was on the way north and had her call me from Home Depot. A guy in the tool department took the phone and I pointed him at the correct drill - a replacement for my 1/2 inch corded Dewalt. She brought it home. She also stopped in Parry Sound to pick up some Opimian Society wine for which I received a pickup notice.

My plan today is to continue with the cordless and if I make it through the rest of the mortar work I'll order a new drill in the U.S. where it is much cheaper and return the corded drill to HD. These things have a 3 year warranty. I've had the one that I fried a little over three years but in all fairness I killed the drill; it was not defective.

Out of curiosity I looked at 3/4 inch drills -- wow are they expensive. The Dewalt 1/2" is $99 in the U.S. vs the 3/4" drill at $599. The bigger drill would be ideal for this application with the spade handle and the slow speed -- 375 rpm vs 800 rpm for the 1/2" drill. Of course the 3/4" drill would probably break my wrist before it would break down. The drill alone weighs 17 pounds !!

Another option might be the spade handle drill 1/2" lower rpm drill -- it is $179, the same as the regular 1/2" drill in Canada. There are many times when I need the extra torque provided by the corded drill ... I'll have to decide what I want for the long term. My major mortar mixing days are almost over, thankfully. I will likely tile the two bedrooms in Florida but do not move tools back and forth as a rule, although a drill does not take much space. I also have the Bosch SDS Hammer, but it does not function as a regular drill without a special attachment (chuck replacement).

Anyway, that's it for August. September is upon us -- sunny and cool.