What I did at my house today...

[Willa]

No, he hasn't. The problem is I blather on about so many things, this just got lost in the mix.

The floor is the vinyl composite tile (VCT) I was agonizing about a year or so ago. It comes in 12" squares and I planned to cut it into 6" squares to make a checkerboard which I felt was more proportional to the room size (~9' X 10'). I met with a lot of resistance from flooring professionals, who warned me it will be a nightmare laying multiple cut edges together, rather than the factory-smooth ones, but I persisted until I found someone who instructed me how to do it. Here's a view from the kitchen, looking into the serving pantry (the sink is at left) with the dining room beyond. The cardboard is to deter my dogs, who seem to believe freshly-waxed floors must be walked upon.

The floor is looking great. The color combo is very nostalgic, and pleasant. How was the tile laying experience with the cut vs factory edge ?

Those VC Tiles are pretty indestructible. Let the dogs run wild ! I'll bet the slippery new floors are thrilling underfoot (well, for them, in a different way than for you).

[Manalto]

Thanks. There was a debate whether the yellow should have been cantaloupe, which I like a lot and think might have been a little more interesting but decided instead on the quieter combination.

I chose this:
VCT Trio Golden LGA and Acrobat by James McInnis, on Flickr

rather than this:

VCT Trio LGA Cantaloupe Acrobat by James McInnis, on Flickr


I dragged each cut edge over a sanding block (120 grit) a couple of times and the resulting edge was as good as - or better than - the factory edge. A pro told me to tip the tile slightly toward the underside. I drew parallel lines a foot apart across the floor and the tiles stayed square; no problem there. (I know the rule is to begin in the middle, but I wanted the main entrance to the kitchen to have one border tile before the checkerboard pattern began and could only guarantee that result by starting at the threshold.) Sometimes one tile would get slightly out of alignment, i.e. stick out 1/16" or so from the line of tiles. In those cases, I'd remove the tile and sand the edge a little more aggressively until it matched the row. When all the tiles were laid, I went over the whole floor, making a fine powder by sanding a spare tile above the floor and carefully filled the crevices with tile dust. Then wax, wax, wax.

The floor isn't perfect but it was my first attempt at laying tile so was cautious with my expectations. I'd like to think I could tell a visitor that the floor is original to the house and they'd believe me for a fleeting moment or two.

[awomanwithahammer]

So you got the whole floor done?

[Gothichome]

James you did a fantastic job on that floor. Great vision and well executed.

[Jeepnstein]

Very nice floor tile design. It's an art getting it all to line up in an old house.

I spent a day getting ready for snow. Because I am prepared, we will not get it. New tires on the back loaded with windshield washer fluid. Everything else tested and adjusted. That's as close to a guarantee as I can get.

[awomanwithahammer]

Very nice, but do you have the really crucial stuff--you know, milk, bread and toilet paper?

That outdoor kitchen is looking really spiffy, Jeep. Did you get to use it much during the outdoor season last year?

[Manalto]

...and batteries. If you get batteries it might be 70 and sunny.



This was originally the back door of the house out of the kitchen (there was another from a tiny hall off the parlor) but since the 1950s addition was built, it connects to a wood-paneled den. When I got the house, it was an open doorway but I've been watching HGTV and they keep talking about something called a "closed floor plan" where rooms serve a specific function and are distinct and separate. I liked the idea, so today I put up this 15-light door to define the kitchen and the den as their own individual spaces. The lever-style door handle will have to be changed at some point to a glass knob and a 50s-style brass one on the other side. (The fridge is pulled away from the wall in this photo.)

I hung the ceiling fixture to the left of the stove, over a narrow steel table with a granite slab top (not there yet). Lighting the space is a Hubbardton Forge fixture with a Vianne French milk glass shade. It's not vintage but I thought it suited.

[Jeepnstein]

Very nice, but do you have the really crucial stuff--you know, milk, bread and toilet paper?

That outdoor kitchen is looking really spiffy, Jeep. Did you get to use it much during the outdoor season last year?

I'm still using it. The water is shut off but everything else is still in play. I have a wood burning pizza oven that struggles to hold good heat once it gets below 25 or so. It's amazing how much more comfortable just having it under roof makes things. Also helps that it is very well lit.

Ahh, milk, bread, eggs; French Toast! The local hippie radio station used to play a song about that every time the snow started flying. This part of Ohio never really gets any serious snow fall.

[phil]

Bonnie Your patch looks really great. Its nice when a project comes out so well that no one notices your hard work later
James the tile looks like it was there a long time ago. It should also last a very long time. You made a really nice choice of the color and pattern. Glad the fitting went so well.
Phil

[Manalto]

Thanks for the kind words, Phil.

Today I donated some of my furniture mistakes to Open Doors, a thrift shop that benefits the needy. The behemoth Craftsman-style table that was way too big for the dining room is gone. I dropped off the set and the volunteer put it out on the floor. I browsed around (CDs 25 cents!) and by the time I got back around to my dining room set, it had been sold.

It was 64F today in Mobile so I painted the back door. Even though there's a canopy, when it rains hard (which it often does), the door gets wet, so I figured I'd better protect it with a good coat of paint. Yesterday the primer went on and dried quickly. Today, although it was much warmer, the paint was still quite tacky eight hours later. I left the back door open, covered the screen door with a tarp, propped up a piece of insulation foam over the opening and cranked up the heat. I'll leave it that way all night and hope the paint dries sufficiently to close the door. "Cured" as it were - or is that the meaning of cured?



That lurid green is not the true color; the image is a combination of wet paint and the camera exposure. This is closer:



(Behind the image of the door is the new circuit breaker box I had to get. The old Federal-Pacific box (AKA the "house burner") might have been the source of the fire in the sleeping porch. Anyway, it's open because the labeling has to be done so I can know which circuits control which sections of the house.

While the paint was drying (or, more accurately, not drying) I took the opportunity to do some gardening, mainly weeding. (I did plant a sweet olive [Osmanthus fragrans] on the sight-line to my neighbor's back door; by the time I move here it should be doing its job. The "fragrans" in the sweet olive's name isn't fooling around - the fragrance is terrific and carries some distance on the air.) I filled up the bed of my truck with weeds. Finally, I feel like I'm ahead of the camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) seedlings; the two big trees (now gone) had generated thousands of seedlings. There are no more of these bothersome trees in the vicinity. After clearing the weeds away from my young plantings, I side-dressed them with some composted manure to give them a boost in the spring.

At the back corner of the house is a saucer magnolia (Magnolia soulangeana) that my neighbor always rhapsodizes about. One bloom appeared today. The tree is covered in buds, but I'll miss the rest of them.

Nothing evokes 'The South' like a live oak dripping with Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) but Mobile only has small pockets of it; I'm not sure why. So, I went to the hospital complex downtown where the trees are heavy with it and collected some. Back at the house I devised a contraption with two ice cubes and a length of string and hurled a few clumps of moss up into my oak. We'll see if it takes.

Finally, now that the dust has settled, I've hooked up my Marantz 2216 to my Advent speakers and have been enjoying some eclectic tunes. It's starting to feel like home - just in time for me to leave!