Hello all. Here is our latest project. We installed Hickory hardwood floor in the kitchen and dining area. It was by far the most fun project so far. We now have lights, plumbing, and heat done so working at night has been much easier. The Hickory floors are quite complicated as we had to empty all the boxes and then make sure to vary the colors as we layed it down so you don't get dark or light patches. So now all we need on the floors are carpet, and we are not even going to attempt that. Too much surface area.

See Everyone, I do work also, I'm not just arm candy.

The wood slides together very easy, then you nail it along the grooves. I think it was easier than doing laminate flooring. It was a lot less stressfull and easier to cut. The pieces come in 3 1/2" pieces of varied lenght and color. This makes going around corners much easier.

This is a shot from the dining room into the kitchen. You can see part of the tile backsplash we put in also. The tape on the countertops is because we are waiting for some more material to come in and then the countertop guy can come in to sand and seal the edges. They are almost done.

Here is a shot of the kitchen from the entryway. You can really see the variances in the floor. Hickory and the knotty alder cabinets really go well together. It took us a long time to find the right flooring for in the kitchen. Everything that looked good in the store didn't look right when we got it next to cabinets. This one looks much better in person than in these pictures.

Can't wait for everyone to see the house. We are getting close. Paint, porches, trim, and carpet are all that is left. Hopefully they won't take long. More updates later.

You asked and we delivered!

Here is a sample of what we have been up to for the last month.

(and why we haven't been updating our blog)

We (by we I mean mostly Kelly) have been cutting and laying down about 1000 sft of tile throughout the house. This includes an entry way, tile floors and countertops in both bathrooms, tile shower and shower pan, tub deck, and backsplashes, also the laundry room floor and countertops. These pics are of the master bathroom. The other rooms went a little quicker but this room has been the bane of our existence. Hopefully there will be more pics of the rest of the tile soon. Thanks and Enjoy.

Here is Kelly hard at work laying out the floor tiles in the master bathroom. She did a modified versaille pattern for many of our rooms. She used stone tile which is heavy and fragile, she even let me break, oops, I mean cut a few tiles with the RotoZip tool for cutting around the vent and the toilet flange.

Here is Kelly again tiling the shower walls. We started with large tiles then went a different way as we approached the top. You'll see in the next pictures. We have seen several different designs for showers and we took elements from different ones to create our own. Hard to take a photo of the whole thing at once.

This is the tub deck. We used the same style of porcelin tile that we used in the shower. We used a different size tile on the tub deck but kept the same larger tiles on the tub face. Of course to make things difficult, I mean beautiful, Kelly turned them on their point like a diamond. Can you tell that she said "I love tile", right before I took the picture?

This is the upper portion of the Shower. We used subway style tiles to create a border, then went with smaller tiles and turned them on point the rest of the way up. I did not realize that 9 feet tall shower walls would feel so high up, until you are sticking little tiles all the way up to the top from a ladder. It felt like it would never end.

Last but not least, this is the finished tub deck. Everything came out great and we just finished the shower floor last night. So almost all the tile is complete we just have to grout everything now. We will update again later.