Can You See Me Now?

Rory has rediscovered sunbeams! In the mornings he plasters himself to the baseboard radiator under the living room window. Once the sun is up he heads to the dining room and the new sliding doors for some southern exposure. And some squirrel watching. All good by me since it means he's not drooling on the new windowsill in the living room.

A little self-grooming always makes a boy feel ready to face the day.

Oh oh, what's this? Two-for-one day! Maybe it's a critter BOGO.

Rory-cam. Ridgebacks must have pretty good sight. The squirrels are in the apple tree on the left.

Really, see? Thing One...

....and Thing Two!

Tile by Jury

Working on the back hall and powder room. Mostly on the powder room. Dry layout of the tiles is taking WAY more time than I imagined it would. But I think the hard part is done. Coming out of that little room and into the back hall the tiles should flow fairly easily. Knock on wood. Or porcelain. Stop me now if you need to because the plan for tomorrow is to put these tiles in for real.
 

Powder room floor. The orange stuff is an uncoupling membrane called Schluter Ditra (which sounds like the name of a German dominatrix, but whatever, take it up with their marketing department).

Dry layout. Now I`m ready for bed. This was a ridiculous amount of work.

Absolutely no laughing allowed. This is what happens when Norm buys a camera of his very own. It would have happened even with "our" camera but at least then I could have vetoed the photo before it ever made it onto our hard drive. Anyway, here we have what can only be described as a Canadian renovation fashionista. This was taken last week when I was mixing thinset to use as a skim coat in the back hall and the little bathroom. Safety goggles, check. Ludicrously blue muck gloves, check. Down-filled parka, check (hey, it was minus 20C, and yah Mom, I know my coat is undone). Don`t even get me started on the headband. The kneepads are just de rigueur now. I wear them all the time. There was absolutely no good reason for me to be wearing them here.

As I write this, there are patches of modified thinset curing in various locations at the back entrance and the 'powder room'. With different and old surfaces we want to ensure that when we start laying tile down it stays where we put it.

When we did the TV room it was fairly easy to keep the construction isolated to just that room. Not so with the rest of the house. One thing leads to another. When we did the roof, it made sense to do the skylights in the living room at the same time. Last spring, when we ordered the window for the TV room, it made sense to order the ones for the kitchen at the same time, since we'd be doing the kitchen next.  So we did. In the fall, when we ordered the windows for the dining room (because you can't do the kitchen without doing the dining room, especially when you're tearing the wall down between the two) we also ordered the windows for the living room. What the heck.

The windows were finally installed last week.  I only got to see the evening light until I was off work on Friday when I made a point to check out the living room and dining room from different angles at different times of day. Window geek. You wouldn't think it could make such a big difference but it does. Especially since we covered up the two east windows that look out onto a fairly busy street. I suspect when the house was built the street wasn't quite as busy as it is now. It's not terrible. Summer isn`t too bad because the whole side of the house is treed, but in winter when the leaves are gone rush hour can be a little distracting. To compensate for covering those two up, we added five smaller windows in a row high up on the wall, and turned one of the dining room windows into patio doors.

This is the living room window that we had covered up. For a house this size, there was surprisingly little wallspace for artwork - so we've had to make some. And to me, the space above the window was wasted.

...so, add five smaller windows to let in the sunrise. I figure walking down the hall away from the bedroom in the morning it will be nice to see the colours of the sunrise through these. The glass is reeded, so the light is prettily diffused. The patch underneath looks like a bandaid. Norm is in the garage right now cutting mahogany to cover that up. If he gets his lights fixed...

Same window, but photo taken from closer to the front entrance.

And now. It makes a huge difference to let light in at the top of the room. Between these and the skylights,  there is now plenty of natural light in the living room - good for a room that faces north - it needs all the light you can get for it.

This is the same window taken from the outside (obviously in warmer weather). Now that it and its match from the dining room are gone, this side of the house has its own bandaid in the form of unpainted cedar siding. I drove by it for the first time today and was really taken aback - it looks like some boarded up abandoned place. Ugh. Can't do much about that right now. When the weather warms up we'll be out painting it white so it blends with the rest of the cedar siding. Yah, I know, the fence needs some work.

Here`s the bow window from the living room ``before``.

...and after. It`s now ``bowed`` enough that you can actually sit on it. It was okay before, but a few extra inches make all the difference. Now Rory and I are going to have to have a talk. The seating area of the old window was varnished wood. Shortly after we moved in I began to notice strange little blotches, like drops of something were staining or corroding the finish on the wood. Dog drool. This is the window where Rory waits for me to get home. Either laying alongside the radiator that runs under the window, or staring out into the front yard watching squirrels. And drooling.

It`s getting kind of complicated to navigate in this space, nevermind taking photographs.

See the clean, dog-drool-free base...

Dining room windows. The one on the left is gone now. It was along the same east wall as the one in the living room.

Norm does the mahogany, I do the drywalling. Now patio doors to the back yard. Currently a four foot drop, until we build a deck. In the meantime Rory has another vantage point for squirrel watching. If the room looks a bit smaller, I think it`s because the entire kitchen is pretty much in the dining room. Old fridge. Stove. One countertop. And the new fridge is blocking the righthand side. Oh...anybody want an aquarium?

The Snitch, Houdini and Me

I've said before that this isn't a weaving blog. Certainly not a fashion blog (but if you know me you know this must be true). It used to be a dog blog, and it recently semi-morphed into a renovation blog. Pretty much whatever I want, since it IS my blog. That's the beauty of it. Today it's a book blog.

The thing about blogging is you tend to connect with other bloggers. You read their stuff and dismiss it. Or you read it and it makes you think. Or you read it till you almost pee your pants laughing. 15 Minute Lunch is one of my favourites. I stumbled on it because a friend's blog has a link to it. Blogs work that way. I have some favourites that I can't even remember how I found. But this is one, well this one is top drawer. I've been known to laugh hard enough at work while reading 15 Minute Lunch - at lunch time of course - that people get worried for my sanity. It looks like now I will be able to scare people with my maniacal laughter on the bus ride home, since the blogger has written book. Johnny Virgil has a way. If you were ever a kid you need to read this book. If you were ever a kid in the 70's you really need to read this book. I'm 20 pages in and totally comfortable throwing this out on the line: this entire thing will be excellent.

Get it for your Kindle, get it for your Kobo, get it for your Reader, get it for your Nook (seriously, who knew?). Go read about it on Facebook. Just go get it. Now I'm going to go finish reading it.

If you're on Kobo or Reader you'll have to do some sleuthing. If you'd rather buy a crocheted hat, Johnny could probably set you up there too. You'll see.

Free

Finally! After days and days and days of -20C and colder weather it warmed up enough to go outside for some fun. And even better, Brianne was visiting from Vancouver for the weekend. I L-O-V-E Brianne. She gives the most excellent scritchers. On Saturday we went sledding with Brianne, and we took Xander too. I totally didn't know what sledding was, but I didn't care. I was out! And I totally ended up liking it. And Xander's favourite word is "totally". It's kinda catchy.

First, I had to get my bearings. We were at the big park where we go lots but never for sledding. Why are we stopping here?


















This is Brianne and Xander. Why are they sitting down? We're supposed to go run and play with the other dogs, right? No? Oh, and you could really use some sunglasses you two.


















But wait, where are you going? I'm coming too!



















Uh, Momma? She stayed at the top so I had to run back up - I couldn't leave my Momma alone. Don't laugh at my ears. You should see this photo cropped and blown up on the big computer monitor. Not funny at all. Just because Momma and Brianne laughed till they cried still doesn't make it funny.


















Whatever. See? Those two came back up. After that I thought I got the hang of it. No need to leave Momma's side. I could just watch from the top.



















But wait! Now what? Where are YOU going? How can I wait up here with you, if you go down there?!


















I don't know what came over me, but Momma didn't like me chasing her. Apparently, the idea is NOT to bowl her over or grab her hood while she's cruising down the hill at top speed (who knew?). After that, Brianne had to hang on to me at the top of the hill every time Momma went down. Then she'd let me go. This time she didn't get a chance to take my leash off. Good thing it didn't get tangled. Oh, and I don't look so graceful when running full tilt downhill. It may have scared people further up the slope, but I always veered around them as soon as I realized they weren't who I was looking for.


















We worked out a pretty good system. Once I was at the bottom, then Brianne would come down either by herself or with Xander if Momma hadn't taken him down first. It meant that I could wait at the bottom of the hill for my people to come toward me! And then LOOK OUT, AMBUSH!


















Here come Brianne and Xander again!



















Sometimes they came down backwards by accident.























I ate a lot of snow on Saturday. A lot. It's thirsty work that sledding.

Preservation

I wasn't operating under the illusion that we could simply leave the plasterwork on the dining room ceiling alone if we were going to keep it. It was white, but not really. White with 50 years of life experience. Two coats of fresh white paint later and things are looking good.

Coming Out Of The Closet?

Another thing we had planned on preserving that was original to the house is the terrazzo in the front entrance. I'm sure in its day it added a bit of glam when a person first came into the house. Terrazzo ain't cheap, and neither is restoring it - that is, if you can even find anybody anymore who knows how to work with it. A lost art, apparently. Unless you live in Florida where terrazzo floors are commonplace.

Our floor is two-tone, a lighter colour with darker chips in the middle and a darker colour with lighter chips around the border and in the front closet. The colours resemble what you might have found on the floors of your high school. No amount of restoring is going to fix that particular problem. Added to that is the fact that we installed 3/4" hardwood in the library/TV room which opens up through French doors from the far side of the front entrance. That much of a transition between flooring types isn't appealing. What to do, what to do?

Some sort of stone or porcelain tile seemed the obvious choice, as long as we could find something in keeping with the original intent - a little bit of 'pow' factor if you will. It turns out finding what we wanted was the easy part. Figuring out if a tile over terrazzo installation will work, that's a different story. There are of course no shortage of forums and advice boards and articles on the internet. Books, videos, and tile association publications. There are even real people you can talk to. Yup, really. And we've done it all. But you might as well ask 7 different rabbis the same question because you're likely to get 7 different answers. And I can say that because I've spoken to a few rabbis in my time.

In the end, it comes down to experimentation. Unfortunately, there is no returning from this little adventure, so you'll want to experiment someplace big enough to see results but inconspicuous enough that you don't have to get out a jackhammer if it doesn't work out. In this case the closet seemed like the best option. If it doesn't work, a piece of carpet cut to fit will hide any ugliness. Not ideal, but a viable alternative.

The theory goes like this: if you can rough up the terrazzo and get a skim coat of modified thinset to adhere without any bubbling or other bad reaction, then you can bed and tile over the skim coat. No plywood, no backerboard, no Ditra, no nothing.

Step One: (and please don't make me insert a disclaimer...but here it is: don't do this just because I said so). Make sure you have all your tools handy for the roughing up part. Mask, safety glasses, kneepads, belt sander (and 50 grit paper) or a grinder, if worse comes to worse. Actually, if worse comes to worse, I'm sure vodka will help.

Step 2: Get rough with it. Kidding. Scuff it up enough that any sealers or waxes or other finishes are removed and that there will be something for the thinset to grab. Wipe away all the dust and let it dry. Then sit down on the floor, lean back against the front door and wonder what the hell it is you've gotten yourself into. You could be in Mexico you know.

Step C: Different tools. Trowel, margin trowel, stir stick or drill and paddle attachment, mixing bucket, water, gloves, safety glasses and modified thinset mortar. It's dusty stuff, so keep the mask handy too. Oh, and lesson learned, a little water goes a long way. You can see I don't have very much in the bucket, but it still took a lot of the mortar to get to the right consistency. I didn't use it all, and it doesn't keep once it's mixed. After it's mixed, you have to let it slake for 10 minutes. I found this waiting period to be an excellent opportunity to read the instructions on the bag of mortar.

Step IV: Use the margin trowel to scoop out the mortar, and the flat side of the notched trowel to skim coat the desired area. Wait 24-48 hours and see what happens. I'll tell you, looking at these pictures, one thing that will happen for certain is a coat of paint on those walls. And some kind of organizing system instead of just a hanger rod. And new baseboard...



But floor first. I'll keep you posted.