tiling madness

another very productive weekend... err... 4 day weekend? its amazing how much you can get done when you can dedicate the time to it. ian was lucky enough to have thursday and friday off work, so we took that time to get as much done as we could on the kitchen.

thursday was mostly spent picking up lots of supplies and getting the tileboard installed in the kitchen:





next step was deciding which floor tile to use. after seeing that home depot dropped their price on real slate, we were very tempted to go that route. but after doing a few tests on it, and knowing how high the maintenance is on it... we opted out. [tests being how badly sydney would scratch the floor with her nails, etc; the high maintenance would involve repeated sealing of the tile every few months...]. hopefully we'll get a chance to use it somewhere down the road. luckily, we found a porcelain slate-look-a-like tile at lowes and ended up using that on the floor.




we also made a last minute decision to use the faux-concrete tile to cover the duct-wall between the living/dining/kitchen area. i wasn't sure how it was going to look, but it turned out great. it has really opened up the rooms:




working on the wall gave me enough practice with tiling and using the wet saw that i'm hoping to get the 2nd bathroom tiled in the next few weeks. during some downtime this weekend, i finished up framing the room where some old wood had rotted from water damage, and got the rest of the insulation installed in the room. next step is hanging the greenboard and finishing that. can't wait to have that finished.

needless to say, i'm very happy with the progress we've made and how great everything is looking. i was also lucky enough to find the grout we need at construction junction [saving money anywhere i can ;) ], *plus* i picked up 8 glass shelves that were 4'x1', with predrilled holes that we're going to use to make a hanging/floating glass shelf unit in the dining room.


suprisingly, we actually had time to enjoy ourselves this weekend too. friday night we went to the harris grill in shadyside where i had a wonderful pomegranate martini; saturday night we hit il pizzaola in mt lebanon before visiting ian's sister and brother in law. last night we made the usual stop at mad mex :) once we grout the kitchen floor [or at least where the fridge + stove go], we can move the appliances back into the kitchen and be able to cook again.