Trying to Finish Things Up on the House

  We have a bunch of company coming to stay with us in less than 2 weeks so I am trying to push to see if we can get everything (at least nearly everything - I know there are at least a couple of projects that are waiting on boards to cure) done in the inside before then. I talked to the contractor and he was agreeable and now we are doing our best to do the things that we are responsible for.

One of the things that the contractor got done this week was some of our stair railings. That was pretty exciting. Not only because we think they look super cool but also because the stairs seem much safer with them. We have had some pretty cobbled together stairs for a while and so we are very happy to have them getting finished.

  Speaking of stairs - A week ago some of the treads weren't done either and one of them had the new tread on it but it wasn't hooked on. I knew it was loose but didn't realize that it wasn't screwed in at all. I stepped on it last Friday evening and it just slipped away with me on top of it. That caused me to fall back on the stair frame (which is pointy) beneath. I hit it with my low back and then slipped again and hit it with my upper back. That was a breath taking experience. I have been sore quite a bit since. I am trying to get into see a chiropractor very soon. So anyway - that leaves me feeling extremely grateful for getting the stairs finished.

 One of the big projects that I have left is tiling our master bedroom shower. This is a project that I felt a little uncertain about and so getting started was a little overwhelming. I also wanted stones for the bottom of the shower but hadn't found what I wanted yet. This week we finally made it to a place where they had lots and lots of stones. I was looking for smooth but not polished stones that looked like they could belong in the river. Though the place we were at had an amazing amount of stones I didn't find what I was looking for. Most of them were far to "fancy" for me. But after not finding what I had gone for the owner and I started discussing the idea of using some split rocks instead. The picture above shows a piece of the tile we are using for most of the shower and a sample of the rocks that I got. I think they match really well and could look pretty cool. Ken was agreeable so I hope to go get what I need pretty soon. What do you think?

 Today I finally laid down the felt/tar paper and the metal lath and then mixed up mortar and made my shower pan. Since my back has been aching Mara helped a fair amount with the mixing of mortar. This project took a while but really wasn't that bad and I think it looks like it is going to work okay.

 I had to carefully slope the mortar so that the shower will drain properly.

Another project that we tackled today was putting up our wallpaper border. The first one that I attempted to put up was in the kids' bathroom and it was supposed to be pre-pasted but the paste was very wimpy and it would not stay up on the wall. So I googled wallpaper paste and found a recipe that used flour, sugar, water and alum. I didn't have alum so I used Tea Tree oil instead to make it mold resistant.

 It is so nice to be able to fix you problems simply and quickly like that.

 Once we had the paste the wallpaper stayed up beautifully.

 We love the way it looks!!

Our only problem is that we didn't have enough. I guess somehow we calculated wrong. Maybe because originally we a had thought we would put it in the middle rather than on top so then we wouldn't have needed it where the shower is or the door. Thankfully I was able to find it and order another roll. It was a close call with getting it as that variety was on clearance with quantities limited.

  Mara and I also put up the border in Ken's office. It looks pretty cool but I guess I will have to share a picture of that another day.

   Ken and Jonathan have been working on our living room window seat and Ken and I also worked a lot on closet shelving and rods. Things are coming along! Hopefully I will have a big report next week as well.