We have finished the apartment and are moving in during the next few weekends. It’s quite a pleasant little space. Light, cheerful and warm. A huge change from 18 months ago. We’ll keep it nice so we can rent it out or just have nice spot for family and friends to visit.

Next steps are complete gut of the main living space. Every room will be rebuilt in some fashion or another. Bedroom and office changing locations, moving or adding walls, windows, doors, or removing them altogether to create the great room. Heat draining useless brick fireplace will be removed and fuel efficient wood burning stove in a corner will take it’s place. Before you suggest it, we don’t have gas lines so that fireplace option - isn’t. :). This work is going to be done by Chermak Construction, included in the deal is our beloved Project Mgr. Darren. We are so looking forward to watching other people work for a while and having someone to call for every little thing that will go wrong.

We’ll also tackle the back deck that is rotting and the front deck that is butt ugly. Painting the outside that is now one single sad shade of tan to a blue with bright white trim to match the workshop we put in a year ago.

As always pictures will be posted. Maybe they’ll show up faster since we should have some spare time….

The last few weekends have been spent with finish work. Trimming windows and doors, caulking and painting. It’s time consuming but not hard. Thomas might argue as he does occasionally have to cut twice despite thrice measuring. It’s nice bang for the buck. Another coat of paint on the bedroom trim and will be complete (for the second time).

We had to order a new door from Home Depot ($40) it’s so pretty and at that price decided to replace the bathroom too. Maybe over time we’ll replace all of the utility doors as well. In the meantime flat plain doors are white so it all blends in and the knobs have been replaced by levers - nice for the old folks.

We are still waiting for the tile guy to come and finish the bathroom so we can post pictures. I have been assured it will be done well before Thanksgiving.

We have the appliances ordered for the main floor, so far the only place my budget matched appropriate product. We are starting to look at fireplaces. Our designer had talked us out of freestanding, commenting that people get tired of cleaning the exposed flue which attracts dust. However, the next best thing is a fireplace alcove and we may have to compromise somewhere. Anyone that has lived with a wood fireplace and has comments, please do so. (we are stuck with wood - no gas here) We are partial to the old traditional look.

I think 3 more weekends have passed since my last update. We were about to begin tiling the bathroom walls and Thomas sort of melted down. Poor quality tools to cut tile, concern about the seriousness of a waterproof shower, and design work all contributed to his “request” to hire out the wall and vanity counter top tiling.

In the meantime we put down the plank laminate flooring in the bedroom, it looks great and is soft and warm - consistent desired outcome to a basement floor. We used Kronotex Swiftlock Plus (Lowes). This was almost as easy as described, which was a nice change. We are going use the same product in the living space. Soon.

We also have Zodiaq counter tops in the kitchenette, new under mount sink, faucet and running water. We have replaced the bedroom door and begun trim - miles to go but it’s surely easier work than what has come so far. I restored the ceramic sink for the bath. Toothpaste scrub, bleach wash and a final coat of Maguire’s Car Wax and it’s almost good as new. Maybe better since I spray painted the underside white.

So why one step back with so much good news? The tile guy came by today. Despite reading several “How To” books the vanity top prep surface is wrong. Cement backer board and plywood is not correct. The shower walls need an additional waterproofing compound and more shimming under the sheet rock. I suppose the good news is that Thomas was right to hire it out. If the tile guy is concerned about warranty, we could have had a mess in a few years. The bathroom continues to be a struggle. We won’t have saved any money by doing so much ourselves when all is said and done. Oh - on the bright side - The “Tile Guy” was walking in socks and commented on how nice the mosaic tile was done. He asked who did it. When I said I did, he let me know how hard it is to get this type of floor so level and offered me a job!! Thanks dude, but you are about 5 years too late, I am over it….at least for now.

Who knew getting to “the pretty” would be so physically demanding. Flip This House just makes it look so easy. The last two weekends have been spent on tiling floors. I don’t know if the pictures do it justice, you’ll just have to visit next year.

The bathroom was hard work but fun, normal thin-set, regular grout from Home Depot. The process went just like book said. It was sheets of variegated white pentagons and tiny square black squares that each weighed over 5 lbs. Wanna arm wrestle? The sheets helped make the gray grout lines pretty straight. We also installed a new toilet, not as gross as I thought it would be. There was no horrid smell wafting up the drain.

The kitchen and hall tile is a new product from Congolium - DuraCeramic. This product was clearly not designed for the do-it-yourselfer. (not sold at Home Depot or Lowes as far as I know) Though it does claim to be much better than regular tile. The first instructions state to lay the adhesive and leave it for an hour until it’s tacky to the touch. The instructions do not explain how to walk over the tacky adhesive or warn you to plan on the install taking days if you don’t want to walk on glue. We had to lay the tile on the adhesive and readjust it as it slip slided around for a couple of hours. The grout lines did remain straight though. The grout was just as awful and nothing like cement type grout. It didn’t stay put very well and bubbled here and there. I can only hope it all holds up to some hard wear and tear. Oh why did I choose it? It’s soft and warm to walk on (and so damn pretty). Yes we have toddled around on our bare feet and one can no longer tell it’s a basement cement floor. Yippee!

Again, I don’t know if the pictures will do it justice but it’s very very pretty with the white cabinets and walls. We have the quartz counter tops coming this week. Next weekend it’s back to the bathroom to tile the shower walls, floor to ceiling white subway tiles. It should be easier now that I know what I am doing, off my my poor old knees and a less weighty product. Grout lines will be a challenge to keep straight but it’s not contrasting color either.

Bottom line, there is a tremendous bang for your buck and effort with tiling and I’d do it again with normal tiles. I would not install the DuraCeramic myself. The beautiful color looks thin once the tile is cut. Once we see how it holds up to hard wear, dogs and cleaning, I might recommend it for professional installation.

We took a much needed weekend in Aug off to enjoy the San Juan Islands with Alicia. Pictures are posted in the “On The Road” album. It’s about 90 minutes north of Edmonds and a ferry ride west to Friday Harbor. We kayaked on the northwest side of the island with view of Canada. Most of the islands had nice cabins or houses, much like the CA Sierra but not so crowded. We saw eagles, harbor seals, fish and a bulb kelp forest. The seaweed is pretty clear in one of the pictures.

The weather was perfect - slightly cloudy and low seventies. The water is very cold, which contributes to the not uncommon deaths of kayakers who turnover without the skill to right their boats within 15 min. or so. Such was the fate a Seattle man on Sunday near where our ferry docked. I think we will kayak again, probably closer to home in Lake Union or Washington. Paddling was pretty easy, sitting still for 3 hours gets a bit crampy.

It’ll be back to work this coming weekend, with a bathroom to paint, tiles galore and acres of flooring to be put down.