Oct 28/29 - playing and tiling

It's been a busy couple of days.

We left Wednesday morning for Stratford after I got back from Home Depot picking up plywood etc. I'd agreed with Aaron that he would remove the existing back to the kitchen island to prepare for my work.

We at lunch at a little sit-down sandwich shop in Stratford and got to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with about 15 minutes to spare. I'd never seen this, even though there is a TV version with Zero Mostel, and it was funny, slapstick kind of funny.

After that we went to our B&B. Stratford is full of them -- this particular one had three bedrooms for rent but we were the only occupants. It is run by a Philipino lady who lives in Toronto with her husband during the winter. They must have bought this with their life savings ... can't quite afford to retire yet. We got the whole story the next morning at breakfast. They close down for the winter, as do most of the restaurants. I say "for the winter" but it's actually once the theatre closes for the season, which is right after Halloween.

Next we were off to dinner ... quite good ... and then The Importance of Being Ernest. An Oscar Wilde play, it was his last, apparently. It too was very good.

Three plays in just over 24 hours ... I was all played out !

After breakfast in the morning we headed back to Oakville. I immediately started work on the island. Stef was busy painting the underside of the counter, which is plywood supporting the granite, figuring quite correctly that it would be easier and safer to do this without the tile in place.

I made some minor adjustments to the large piece of plywood for the back -- HD had cut it to size for me -- and finished that installation. I then cut the 1/4 inch plywood to size and screwed that to the particle board at the end of the island. Nicely prepped, I started on the tiling, approaching the first tile cut with some trepidation.

The tiles are very difficult to work with. They are fingered and the little pieces are prone to breaking. That said, a lot of the finger pieces and internal pieces are already broken -- it's part of the look but makes them exceedingly difficult to work with. Cutting was relatively easy -- you have to cut across at a 1" boundary and cutting "with the grain" is by knife, since the horizontal pieces are only 1/4" wide. I worked at it all day, only breaking for a pb&j at 3pm -- time to clean the tools and make a new batch of mortar. Stef worked at it too, cleaning the excess mortar as I worked, which made things go much faster. By 5pm or so we were finished. I used some of the excess mortar to grout the top one side. Another small batch will have to be made (a cupful) to grout the bottom at the end since I had cardboard spacers in there to level it with the long end of the island.

Whew. It was a lot of work but it really looks good. Sandy had been running around as well as having a dentist appointment. Stef went out with the X5 to pick up Kylie and once home, made dinner. Aaron wasn't due back until late and as it turned out, later than I stayed up. I was completely spent.

It's morning again. I'll be packing the car in a minute and we'll be off for downtown. I need to pickup coffee beans; Sandy is getting her hair done; Abby is along for the ride. After that we'll head back north, probably getting their mid afternoon.

Onward !