The leaves are falling and we’re working hard to get things done.  I worked on the “leaves” in the entry this week.

Leaves & pebbles installed

 The “rug” border was stuck down last weekend and Willow and I filled in around them with the pebbles. It was kinda like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I sealed the pebbles and then covered them with clear contact paper…3 layers.  Then I cut the paper off the leaves and removed them so I could move the pebbles and stick them down.

Pebbles that surround leaves

 It worked, sort of.  I did not put enough thin set down, so they were still not on the same level with the leaves and border. After sticking down the leaves, and while everything was still movable, I peeled off the contact paper.  Most of the pebbles were loose and did not stick down well, so I ended up re-setting them one at a time to get enough thin set behind them to build them up high enough and make them stick well.

Dry-fitting the entry tile

 It was tedious, but well worth the effort.  After that chore was done, I finished dry-fitting all the tiles in the entry and closet.  The tile saw is on the back porch, so there were many trips back and forth.

Today, I started sticking down the rest of the tiles.

View from the loft

 It was pretty cold, so I could only work from the inside. Not a good day to have the door open and work from the front porch.

Fireplace from the loft

I had to keep a fire going in the fireplace all day, but I was plenty warm. John went up to the loft and took pictures. There is no heat up there, but it was warm too. We thought it would be, but if we need auxiliary heat, we’ll use a space heater.  I ran out of mixed-up thin set at about 10:30 PM, so I still have a few more tiles to do tomorrow. Bummer! I wanted to grout tomorrow!  

Almost ready to seal and grout

Well, it looks good, and grout will have to wait until I’m off on Wednesday. It’s not like I’m going to run out of things to do before then!

I spray painted the copper base coat on the ceiling tiles this week .

Painting copper color on tin tiles

They are ready now for the “Verde” touches to be added.

Ceiling tile

We’ll do that before we install them.

John got the posts set for the power panel where the meter box and such will be mounted.

Setting the posts

They will be on the back of the panel and won’t be visible. From there, they will go underground into the house.  That will be a really great day!  We plan to build a small arbor attached to the posts to make that area more attractive. Probably a spring project.

John got the shower tile sealed today before he went to work.  Now it’s ready for grout, too. He’s going to take some time off work next week and try to get the water heater installed and get things ready for the power hook-up.  Hopefully, we can get that done and try out the radiant floor heat soon. That will be so nice!