Considering what we had going on today in the broken house, I have been singing that song all day in my mind. I couldn't talk due to the face mask / respirator thing, could barely see thanks to my safety goggles, and had my earplugs in all day and so did Tim.... in fact, no one could hear me, so I guess it was ok for me to be singing "Sledgehammer" all day, cause that's what we did. Here's a quick shot of Tim pre-tile-breakup, in his "Viva Espana" outfit. Don't you think he looks like the Spanish flag?We had high hopes this morning for a 25-lb. tile jackhammer to help us quickly and easily remove the tile in the broken house. Guess again. Mary Reizun took the kids out to a movie and then babysat them at our house, so we had a kid-free zone to work in all day. The tile jackhammer thing didn't work quite as spectacularly as promised. The best thing we did today was sledgehammer the tile out. Or I should say, Tim sledgehammered the tile out. I was mostly tile cleanup crew. I sledgehammered about 6 tiles before almost collapsing in exhaustion. Also, my hands and arms were killing me. In other good news, our air conditioner is up and running, our well equipment/water softener/filters are up and running, and I seem to have solved the wallpaper dilemma. I just got good at it after having blundered my way through the kitchen wallpaper removal. I now have mad wallpaper skillz.
Importantly, we also did our first budget check last night to see how much we have already spent, how much we have left to spend, and verify that we have enough to cover it. So far so good! I am happy to report we are on budget and just about on schedule.
Before I got to the broken house today, I picked out tile! I made two selections, just so I can have an idea on price. I am about 90% certain we're going to go with travertine tiles in a French pattern (picture to follow soon) and a rolled edge. Trust me, they're really pretty. We also picked out granite countertops yesterday, a kind of granite called Santa Cecilia. We were looking at Kashmir Gold (another variety) and actually liked it better, but the Santa Cecilia will go better with my cabinets and new tile floors. We'll probably begin installation in about 2 weeks. I had to choose between two very similar granites (from neighboring granite mines in Brazil), the Santa Cecilia and I think the other one was Giallo Gold or something... I went with Cecilia because 1) she seems like a nice Catholic girl, and 2) My sister Mary and I used to sing the Simon & Garfunkel song "Oh Cecilia" when I was a little girl and I have a lot of good memories of that!
Here's a great shot of me in my safety gear giving Tim the "what did you just say?" look.
Actually I will admit, I was smiling in this picture, not that you can tell. We were almost done for the day, and I think I was getting punch-drunk. Tim would hit about 10-15 tiles, smash them up, and then I would come in with the push broom and put them into piles that we could sweep/shovel into double-bagged heavy duty garbage bags for the garbage guys to take away on Tuesday. The bags have to be less than 60 lbs each, but 60 lbs, in a great big black garbage bag full of sharp points is pretty unwieldy. I cut myself on my thumb once, and you'd think I'd have learned, but I really sliced my left thigh open too, it looks like I got clawed by an animal.... with claws. Tim told me to wear pants, but I forgot to bring them. Tomorrow.....Here's a look at the huge pile of tile debris , oh and we had to move the refrigerator into the family room so that we could sledgehammer the tile underneath the refrigerator area in the kitchen. The dishwasher will probably be there tomorrow too:
We filled 12 or 15 bags of this stuff, and had to load it in the wheelbarrel to get it down to the curb. It's a mess, dusty, gets in your eyes, hair, socks, you name it. The face mask is a must because you don't want to inhale that thin set or ceramic dust. Hence, the need for all the protective gear. Poor Tim is back over at the house as I write this, I had to feed the kids, start some laundry, bring Mary Reizun back to her dorm at UCF, and get cleaned up. Not in that order.
Tim showered, ate supper, laid down to rest for a bit, and went back over there to get some more sledge hammering done. The poor guy, his head will be ringing tonight for sure. In case you're wondering what's the big deal, here's a little video to leave you with for the night. You can't quite, but almost feel the vibrations of the sledgehammer smashing up tile. It's tough tough work. I can honestly say we are both exhausted and sore, but this has also been a lot of fun too. We are having a great time together and we can't wait to get the project complete and show it to our friends and family. It is going to be a great house.
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