day 223: bird shower

master shower wall finishing up soon


master shower floor already water tested

dad said the birds love sitting on the snow guard to take in the morning sun. otherwise i never saw birds on the roof.

day 216: concrete

formwork for the concrete front porch and steps


here comes the concrete truck


pouring the front porch


the concrete team


apparently a good time to smoke a pipe is when you are spreading concrete


the front porch after some floating and broom sweeping


before the concrete came, the guys made formwork for the wall footings


bringing over the concrete block


laying concrete block where it won't be seen


the excavator helps build up the ground


what's wrong with this picture?


the dirt pile's biggest fan


day 1 progress on the stone walls


terraced walls are dry-stacked barn stone since they have no deep footings


meanwhile, a smaller crew started installing the wood floor upstairs. what a nice view in that chop shop.


floor installation in the living room


later that day


day one progress on the dining room floor

meanwhile, the tile installer worked on the master shower floor

day 214: backfill

back-filling near the front door.


no more 10 foot drop from the front door!


dad and i assemble the kitchen island cabinets


tile begins at the master bath double sink area

day 209: master bath

earlier Brian installed cement board backer on the floors. over this he laid out the heat mats


floor tile installation progress


finished floor in the sink area of the master bath.

day 208: shower

brian installed cement board on the shower walls and...


a pre-made Kerdi shower floor pan with some additional fill around the sides for the extra-large size of the shower.

day 189: slate

slate tile down the hall to the laundry room and master bedroom

day 185: slate

the first tile was laid today. mom shared a picture from this afternoon.

day 180: prep

dad priming the screen porch ceiling


brian, the tile installer, installed backer board for the slate floors upstairs.

day 179: tile layout

i asked dad + mom to layout out some slate tile so we could choose a final pattern.

16"x16" slate, running bond: foyer, hall, powder room, laundry, kitchen, pantry, basement, etc.


12"x24" porcelain tile, running bond: master bathroom walls + floor


tiler hauler noted, "My shirt matches the wall paint!!! :-)"

day 175: tile pickup

dad borrowed uncle paul's giant pickup truck and drove down to get the tile. it's close to an hour drive each way, and he had to make a second trip since our order was so large. he picked up 16x16 slate tile for the basement family room/kitchenette/hall/bathroom, a different 16x16 slate tile for the upstairs foyer/powder room/hall/laundry/kitchen/pantry, and a 12x24 porcelain tile for the master bathroom floor and walls. He may have also picked up white 3x6 subway tile for the 2nd bathroom.


tile came from Pro Source in Cranberry Twp


16x16 slate tile


uncle paul used the tractor and a chain instead of unloading the tile one box at a time. notice the back tire lifting off the ground from the weight of the slate.


garage staging area. the rest was driven straight to the basement and slid inside using wood 2x4's.

day 16: shopping

After stopping by the house and surprising the plumbers, i went with mom and dad to a wholesale flooring place about an hour away. longer if you stop at Starbucks.
We found a porcelain tile to use in the master bathroom. It is a light color like mom wanted, it comes in 12x24 size like dad wanted, and it has a pattern that was acceptable to everyone. price was not so great.
most of our tile was spent looking at a limited selection of slate. We have a small amount of slate already that we hoped to match as close as possible. dad + mom liked the sample pieces we saw, but then hated them after seeing a sample area that was installed in the showroom. i wasn't able to sway them to anything darker or more uniform.

porcelain tile

dark slate

greenish slate

multi-color slate

we laughed because our floors are from the Homer woods, and made by Amish

pendant we laughed at but then liked