Chronicles of Construction...

Here are some more photos of the process...

I didn't get pictures of tiling the kitchen. It was the first room and the scariest. We used Ditra from Schluter as the tile underlayment. I had precut it to fit the floor between the cabinets not thinking about how we would wedge it in under the overhang, infront of the toe kick. So, while thinset is setting up, we quickly had to recut all of the pieces. It was a freakish experience.

The foyer went much more smoothly. Here's Steven cutting a hole in the Ditra for the heat duct.



Half way there...



Almost...



What a messy process!!!!



The tile layout for each room took longer than the install. We dry fit all of the pieces, cutting everything before we ever mixed the thinset.



More layout... We had to make sure it would meet the laundry room/hall tiles properly before the install.



Here are the guys from Paramatrix Stone (Randy on the left and Brian on the right) setting the first piece of Kerlite in our guest bath.



Wood floor, day one...



Wood floor, day two...



Wood floor, X-mas eve...



Our first tree - the day after X-mas. I completely forgot about taking pictures of our first Christmas in the house. Shannon and her boyfriend, Marty, were here, along with Lauren and Anthony. It was a really nice day. I got up early and made breakfast at Louise's house. When everyone was up/here we got everything over to the house and had breakfast together in the new house. It was a good day, especially since we didn't run out of propane. The day before, our flooring guy was talking about running out of propane. That made me think about checking ours, since we were in the midst of a real cold snap and the doors were constantly open with the floor guys and Paramatrix Stone there. Well, it was a good thing I checked. We were below 10% and no deliveries until the day after Christmas. So, I went and got our little tank from the gas grill filled and purchased another one just in case. We luckily didn't need them, but it was a close call. Now, the heat pump is installed and we don't need the gas nearly as much.



View of the living room from the kitchen...



I look forward to the day when we can get rid of all of the cardboard that is protecting our hardwood flooring - just a few more days...