The Indignity of D.I.Y.: Back Breaking Labor of Love

Aside from a completely failing HVAC system we consider the contracted work to be complete. While we punch out the last of the list we return to familiar ground once again by taking on the finish work in the house that, for one reason or another, we held out of the base contract. We've been burned by shitty craftsmanship in the past and while we may not be experts we have the luxury of time to get something to fit right, or at least take the time to find good solutions. We've had the benefit in our careers of seeing good craftsmen at work and we know how rare and valueable they are... one day I hope to hire one, in the mean time we make do.

The epic tile journey last month needed completion and so we set the weekend aside again to take on the project. We had originally budgeted for professional installation but he quit after leveling the floor without notice, so it was back to the shed for the old tile saw (insufficient) and then off to the hardware store to rent the right one.

I've learned in the past the benefits of a bigger hammer so i rented the biggest tile cuttingest hammer they had, pinned up the 'construction doc' and set to work.

In keeping with our long tradition of overcomplicating standard home owner choice... the tile we found is an encaustic cement tile. Our research found that encaustic tile originated in France and has fallen out of favor lately but is an old tile making method prized for its pain-in-the-ass weight and challenging installation protocol. We can't mention the grout proceedure without using the F word... or C word so it's best not to ask. These also have the benefit of looking almost exactly like ceramic tile while being twice as thick and puzzlingly more fragile.

I got a scare during the dry layout when i found one of the boxes contained two miss matched tiles... I immediately checked the rest of the patterned boxes (and foolishly only the patterned boxes) in case we didn't have enough to finish. Thankfully, this tile was the only anomaly.

note the extensive use of OSHA approved footwear throughout the project

eat your heart out Lululemon

Day 2 (Sunday) was a 6am to 6pm mad dash. once the patterned runner was down the rest of the work under the stove and cabinets could run a little faster.

This is about when disaster struck. The last box of white tiles was filled with half tiles- why this wasn't discovered sooner when we could have use half tiles to space the job out in hidden places... I'll never know. Call it murphy's law or call it dumb luck, or call it instead par for the course.. but we found ourselves exactly 1 box of tile short from completion, placing me back at the mercy or overnight shipping from upstate new york.