We were only out at the build house for a day and a half this week.  But I was able to get the last of the floor tile laid in the master bedroom!

So I am done laying floor tile for the immediate future!  We do still have my office and the guest bedroom to do.  But we are not yet sure if we are going to tile them or do wood or something else.  We are in absolute agreement they will not be carpeted!  Regardless, those two rooms can wait until after the final inspection to make a decision.

I could not be happier with how the tile came out at the end of the far wall of the bedroom.  It was strictly by luck and not planning that we ended with a full tile against the end wall of the bedroom.  (I must be living right.)  I laid out the tile long-wise to be centered in the main part of the bedroom.  But I laid it out short-wise to be centered on the hallway coming into the bedroom.  I could not have planned this any better and it is sheer dumb luck that it worked out this way.

We got a good start on the grout in the master bedroom, bathroom and closet.  Unfortunately, we ran out of grout before we ran out of floor.

And of course, these being the tiles from hell, grouting them has been more difficult than the other tiles as well.  We are going to have a ton of cleanup after the grout is fully dry.  I sure hope these end up looking as good as I think they will, because they have been an absolute nightmare to work with, every step of the way.

(Also because I was the one that picked this tile and grout combination.  Tina did not object, but I was the one that said “Oh yeah!  Let’s do that!”)

I also spent the evenings unpacking and organizing some of my my hand tools.  I think I am missing a box of clamps from the move from Minnesota. I am sure the missing ones are in the rental garage somewhere.  But at least I was able to find enough to be able to build the kitchen.

And I do not think my wrenches and sockets have EVER been this organized!  I am sure I will not be able to find anything.

The plan for next weekend is to finish the grout in the master bedroom and to transform the garage into a proper cabinet shop.  That will require us to get my tablesaw and other machine tools put back together and get the last few machines moved over from the rental house.

I also want to get the toilet permanently set in the master bath and get a laundry sink in the laundryroom.  That will be a BIG milestone since it will mean we have actual running water INSIDE the house!

I apologize for not writing a post last week.  For the last two weekends I have been doing the floor tile in the master bedroom, master bathroom and closet.  It has been extremely slow going due to the tiles being 6 by 36 inches.  Therefore, more than half of them have required cutting to fit.

I am especially pleased with how well the bathroom turned out.

Thankfully, I am almost done with it.  I have an area that is 6 by 16 feet yet to do in the main part of the bedroom.  Otherwise, the rest is complete.

It does look pretty nice, but man what a pain it is to lay!

We also noticed a mistake the builder made when framing the guest bathroom.  Typically, when they frame a bathroom that has a bathtub going across the full width of the room, they put the studs a 1/2 inch wider than the tub.  Then, once the tub is set in place, they put a 1/2 inch lathe on the face of each stud prior to sheetrocking and taping.

In the guest bathroom, they failed to put the lathe up before sheetrocking.  Thus, it left a gap along the back wall of the tub.

Obviously, that would not have worked with wall tile.  So we contacted the builder and they came out and fixed the problem.

Tina had to prime and re-paint the wall.  But otherwise we should be in good shape now.  (Note: I forgot to get a picture of the completed wall before we left.)

Since Tina does not have a lot she can work on until I get the mouldings and start working on the cabinets, she put together a couple of planters for outside.  She has a cactus garden at the rental house that is growing like mad.  So I think we will be moving some of those over in the next few weeks as we come out to work on the house.

Lastly, in the evenings we started putting some shelves together and started to organize my workshop in preparation for building the cabinets.  We still have quite a few tools to mover over from the rental house.  But we are taking those a few at a time as we get the shop organized enough to make space for them.

Now that the floors in the living room, dining room and kitchen are done, we focused our attention on the floors in the master bedroom and bathroom.  But before we could begin, we had to move our sleeping quarters into what will be the kitchen and move our tiling supplies and tools into the living room for storage.

I also had to remove the toilet from the master bathroom to be able to tile the floor.  So I started the whole process by permanently setting the toilet in the guest bathroom.

When the plumber ran the lines throughout the house, he used a new type of line called PEX rather than copper.  Since I had only ever worked with copper lines, I was more than a bit apprehensive about how easy the PEX would be to work with.

Plumbing has never been my strong suit in home repair/remodeling.  But after cutting and putting on a couple PEX fittings, I am absolutely sold on it as a product!  You literally cut the PEX to the correct length and push the fitting on.  That’s it!  There is nothing to tighten or soldier or anything.  And they simply do not leak!

It took some time to get the waste pipe cut off and get the hole in the concrete cleaned up enough to glue the toilet flange in place.  But once that was done, it literally took about 15 minutes to set the toilet and get the plumbing done to connect it to the PEX line.  Did I mention that I am now a PEX True Believer?

Then I was able to remove the temporary toilet from the master bathroom so I can tile (and put a bag of grout over the waste pipe to keep the sewer gas out of the house).

I got started on the floor tile in the master bedroom and bathroom.

These tiles are much slower to lay than the tile in the living room because they are 6X36 inches.  So there is a LOT of cutting.  But they do look pretty nice.

By the end of the week, my knees and back were in pretty tough shape from kneeling on the concrete.  So I decided to take a break from the tile and start moving my shop tools from the rental house.

I did get all of the parts for my tablesaw moved over, but have not yet put it back together.

And of course my “Steel Tina” (roller outfeed table for my tablesaw).

Note to any budding woodworkers: a “Steel [insert your wife’s name here]” is a MUST for your shop.  They are pretty cheap, (I paid about $150 for mine) And they will absolutely save your marriage if you have to rip long boards or cut sheet goods.

I also got my tool chests moved over.

But still have to put the tools back into them.

I plan to spend my evenings when I am done working on the house for the day, re-organizing my tools into my tool chests.  But I will need to take a day or two and dedicate it to just organizing my shop and re-assembling my machine tools.

Plus, I do still have a few machines at the rental house: a lathe, a jointer, a 22″ drum sander and a drill press.

Also, our friend Danny came by and helped me lift the wood stove from its shipping pallet onto some furniture pads.  The furniture pads will allow me to slide it into final position by myself once I get the pipe for the chimney.

I like it a lot!  I think it is going to look really sharp once we get the final trim done.

Finally, all of the recent rain has caused some sink

holes to appear.

We have had 2-3 of them appear.  The one in the picture is the biggest.  It is about 16 inches deep.  At first, I thought it was over the leachfield.  But it is too far away from the house for that.  So I do not know why it happened.

When it rains, the hole fills completely with rainwater and mud, much to the delight of Belle The Amazing Water Dog.