It took a couple of revisits to line up and edge a few of the tiles, but the new slate foyer is finished. It's a big improvement over the marble, and the stone isn't as rough on bare feet as we thought it would be. Now that the floor's a lot darker the ceiling feels like it's been raised a few feet.
The stone work was done by Vallefuoco Contractors, who we recommend.
Last Saturday we had guests over for the first time. The azaleas are in bloom and the weather's great, so we grilled on the back deck and set up picnic tables outside. Sure enough, the party ended up in the kitchen - which is why we started this project in the first place.
It looks like my two-day estimate was a little ambitious. I think they'll be done today - just need to add grout, thresholds and shoe molding.
The floor guys came today to replace the foyer marble with slate. I think they'll be done tomorrow.
I spent about fifteen minutes in the garage sorting the 120 tiles we bought months ago into functional piles - Excellent Specimens for the main walkway, Lousy Specimens that may be good for edge triangles, In-Betweeners and Green Ones. We want to marginalize the green tiles as much as possible.
Fifteen minutes of slate sorting and I got a blood blister. What's up with that?
Last Saturday was Window Day - we wiped two years of dirt off the clear parts of the house (we skipped last year because of the construction). What a glorious difference.
The carpet installed okay - not perfect but you really have to look for the seam now. Melanie picked up an antique desk and we had to saw part of it off to get it through the narrow door. Goodbye Antiques Roadshow.
The room looks a thousand times better than it used to.
I picked up some line-voltage lamps for the Progress track in the back room. About fifty bucks per head+bulb - maybe a third of the cost of low-voltage lamps.
Bar's open.
The carpet guys are back today to replace the defective back room berber and repair the gouges (drywall & linoleum) they left last time.