Tile, Grout, and Freezing My Bottom Off

It would be nice to get a little rain without the storm sirens going off, but I guess we'll take what we can get.  And, as long as we are putting in weather requests, I'd also like to get our 70 degree+ weather back. 
I'm not sure I'll ever warm up from the meeting at the house today.  It was seriously cold in there.

Shane didn't even wear a coat. Crazy boy.

The tile guys got started a little later than expected, but at least they have started laying the kitchen tile.

In the list of things I've learned from building this house, I'm going to add that laying tile takes much longer than I thought.  I expected with these huge tiles (I think they are 12x24) they would fall into place like dominoes.

I was wrong.

This tile looks very light in the pictures, but they are a lovely creamy marble porcelain.  I may kick myself later for choosing this tile, but it sure looked pretty in the sample picture at the store.

Up against our dark cabinets and the dark wood floors, they should add just the right amount of brightness.

The wood floors are full of these gorgeous knotholes.  With the scraping and the dark stain, the knotholes will add so much character...

They are finished with the wood floors for now. The scraping and staining will happen later.

Here's the sample wood floor pic that I tried to show you yesterday.  I'm just in love with the texture. 

Won't they be pretty next to the smooth kitchen tile?



Here's the whole crew trying to decide what we want the window trim in the harvest room to look like.  They are drawing all sorts of pictures on the walls.

Like this sketch in the wine room...

Shane, the trim carpenter, & Dana are in the wine room making more sketches and Dale is peeking through the window to see what exactly they are up to.

Remember how I said laying tile takes awhile?

This picture was taken about 2 hours after the ones above were taken.

While we were there a truckload of supplies were delivered. 

Doors, wood and tile.

 

Here is one of our interior doors.

This frosted glass double-door is for the game room.

They place the doors inside the house near where they will be installed, but the tile and wood was all neatly stacked in the garage.

Also, we picked out all the grout colors today. 

This was a much easier task than I expected.

Kitchen...

Powder bath...

You can't tell here, but this tile is silver with tiny stripes.  It. is. so. cool.

The mother-in-law suite...

...and the master bath.

The master bath tile couldn't be any more different than our kitchen tile, could it?

We are trying very hard to stay warm so we can finish up.

Now that the grout has been selected, they tile guys are going to have to kick it into high gear.  Our cabinets will be delivered and installed Tuesday, which means they have three days to finish laying and grouting the tile in the kitchen, studio, pantry, powder bath, mother-in-law suite, upstairs bath & master bath.

If I were a betting girl, I say odds are-they won't be done in time. 

But for now, I'll be optimistic and hope for the best.

Some more good news...the lighting consultant called and we are just over budget by about $500. This is an easy fix-we had options in several places where we couldn't decide and I can just make a couple of changes to get things under budget. 

Someone (who shall remain nameless) suspected that we would be way, way, over budget. 

He's going to be so proud of me.