Tiling Adventures

Jacob and I are very proud of ourselves! While we have tried to do as much as we could on the house on our own (or with the help of family), one thing that has freaked us out from the beginning is tiling. But a few weekends ago we bit the bullet and started tiling our wood stove area. We even bought a wet tile saw to make the necessary cuts. And we rocked. The tile job is definitely not perfect, but we think we did great for our first time! We also worked very well together- Jacob was on placing duty while I was measuring and making the cuts. The only bad thing about cutting the tile are the little shards left over that cut you up (I definitely bled a few times- so sharp!).

Before we could even get started on tiling, however, I had to unscrew the top layer of the cement backer and create a 1-inch gap rather than the 1/4 inch air gap we originally made. It was tedious and took a long time, but now the wood stove area is super legit and beyond code!

the spacers

ready for tiling

good work, Totes

making progress

starting the platform

all we need is grout!

A few weekends back we did all the tiling and the grout the week after that. Last weekend Jacob installed all the interior piping and had our first fire in our bedroom! But, we didn’t finish the whole thing until today. The last thing we had to do was touch up the stove pipe where it had gotten scratched up- it looks wonderful!

the stovepipe installed, but needing paint

can you tell the difference? I can!

We love the way the area looks now- and it’s nice having a more complete bedroom! It feels good having one more little project that we started a long time finally finished.

Under the Radar

From the email invite I sent you earlier, you all now know that the blog is private. It may seem a little paranoid, but we don’t want to take any chances. Also, we found out that the Permits Dept. uses stuff like Google Street View and who knows what else in cases like this. So, just to be safe we are flying under the radar.

So what does the red tag mean exactly? The first thing is that we have to stop work on the retaining wall until it is cleared through the county. In order to clear it through the county we hired an engineer my grandpa knows to draw up plans for the wall. Once it has an engineer’s stamp of approval, we send that info to our inspector and he comes out and signs off on it. But that is the scary part. When he comes out and really starts looking at stuff, we don’t know what he could find. The previous owner (the guy who flipped the house) and the owner before him did a lot of un-permitted work. We aren’t sure if we’ll have to pay the price for things we didn’t do. So for now it’s a waiting game. Not ideal.

With all this red tag business going on, Jacob and I have decided that from now on anything we do outside we will get a permit for- we will be very good. However,it was too late for our roof. “A couple weeks ago” we finished the roof we had started earlier this summer. Jacob, my dad and I kicked butt and got all the shingles down in a mere 4 hours. It was hot, sticky and miserable but we knew we needed to get it done. And it looks fabulous!

all done

another view

To finish the last roof of our house though? Yup- we are definitely getting a permit for that.

Something we didn’t need a permit for that my dad did (which looks amazing):

our nook’s window

And another thing- we now can use our toilet! Our toilet has been installed for about a month now, but there was no sink to wash up in. We finally have the sinks installed (Thanks babe!) so we have full use of our bathroom. So cool!

the sinks

Next steps/ Since we can’t do much work on the house until we get cleared by the county, Jacob and I are going to invest our weekends into cleaning up the house. We are going to put away materials, tools, and other things that make our house look like a construction zone. We are going to button up different projects that we started but never quite finished (i.e. trim, baseboards, tiling the wood stove area), and then hey- we may even have a couple of days of relaxation? Well, at least a couple of days of not working on the house.  Either way, with the forced slowing of work on the house, I think we’ll have more time to stop and enjoy the progress we’ve made. Because we certainly have done a lot.