Der letzte Teil von Fussboden

There's a pun in the title, which translates roughly as, "the last part (installment) on flooring." We're talking tile flooring here.

Ruth had surgery on April 29th to correct the triggering of her fingers on her right hand. On the following Tuesday, daughter Allison drove Ruth and grand-daughter, Kate, to Minneapolis to visit Ruth's sister, Sharon, and her family. It had always been Ruth's plan to do the tiling of our shower and floors, but the diminished hand function overruled that intention. So I was set to learn how to do this particular task while she was gone.

Just as they were crossing the U.S. border, my cell phone rang. It was David Ives. He and his nephew, Dale, had done our taping and plastering and, a few weeks earlier, I had called to see if they might have a few days to do the tile floors. Both of them have done and, more particularly, enjoy, tiling. I, on the other hand, have never done tiling (other than vinyl) and, after the 1,300 sq. ft. of hardwood, was loath to get back down on my knees again. But, back to the Tuesday call from David.
Turns out, they now had some uncommitted time on their hands and David wanted to know how I was getting on with the tiling. I was thrilled to say I could have the place in readiness for first thing Wednesday morning. I hooked up the trailer and headed off to pick up the sub-flooring and other supplies then, upon returning to Ruth's Ridge, cleared the bathrooms, kitchen and mudroom floors.

By Wednesday evening, the sub-flooring was installed. By Thursday evening, the two bathrooms and most of the kitchen tiles were laid. By Friday, the majority of the mudroom was tiled. On Sunday evening, Ruth returned from Minneapolis. It's fair to say she enjoyed her Mother's Day surprise.David & Dale returned on Monday to complete the mudroom tiling which, because this house has more angles than a Federal politician (and most politicians seem to enjoy hanging out in the mudroom) posed a major challenge for measuring and cutting. On Tuesday, they returned for the grouting and, voila, the living-space floors on Ruth's Ridge were completed. What remains is to paint the basement and garage floors to eliminate perpetual concrete dust.

The five days D&D spent have saved me/us a couple of weeks, I'm sure. I can now get to tasks with which I'm more familiar: installing sinks, toilets, dishwashers, etc. I've already hung about half of the interior doors (the first one taking a day; the next, less than 2 hours).
Pictures of the completed floors next post. Thanks so much, D&D, for the great Ruth-surprise and the marvelous Gord-relief intervention.

Yesterday, the verandah wood package showed up. Can't wait to finally get to some outside work after being confined to quarters for the past 6 months.