… stays in the shower. Pretty sure that applies to the fancypants aluminum edging that now divides the tile and the cork ceiling, because I can’t imagine it escaping its new confines…
Looks good, no?
There’s still more to be done, so don’t be too judgmental yet. The niche will be tiled soon and there’s more metal edge to come. And grout, of course. But I’m loving how it’s coming together so far!
Mark was back at it yesterday, tiling those walls in the bathroom downstairs…
That shot doesn’t really show off his handsome side. I apologize for that. By the end of the day, tile stretched across the full width of the room…
Eventually it will meet the ceiling and this will really start to look like a bathroom. Thanks, Mark!
Want to see something that turned out perfect? The floor and ceiling, finished. TA-DAAAA!
It’s so great when a project turns out the way you hope it would.
And now that that’s out of the way, want to see something that turned out craptastical?
Sure you do…
Yup, when the plastic held on by the paint-friendly blue tape was pulled down, it took the brand-new paint job with it. All. the. way. around. the. room.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF…
Why did the paint fail? Who knows. But one thing is for sure: it’s not a simple fix. It probably means sanding and another full coat. Kill me now.
Well this is going quickly! David and Joe are putting four coats of finish on the cork flooring downstairs. The first two coats went down yesterday. This morning there was sanding, vacuuming and dust mopping…
And now the final two coats are going on…
More later!
There may be only one in this shot but I assure you there are two swarthy dudes laying down the first coat right now…
… everybody rock and roll! Think you can name that tune?
So with the ceiling now finished downstairs, the floor is in motion. No wasting time here, nuh-uh. David and Joe are gettin’ down to bidness, if ya know what I mean…
The floating cork planks are huge — 12″x36″ and 1/2″ thick, so theoretically the floor should go down even faster than the ceiling…
There’s some trimming involved to get things to fit…
But these things snap together easy-peasy…
Work began yesterday and already the boys are more than halfway done!
Yep, the ceiling is dunzo! Finito! Completo! David has the lurid details…
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Joe and I finished installing the ceiling tiles and tackled the final step earlier this week: sealing them. As I just reminded Brook, cork is wood, right? So it benefits from having a finish on it to resist marks and scuffs, and to keep the stain from discoloring over time.
Because the cork on the ceiling won’t get wear and tear from countless feet, we applied two coats instead of the four recommended for floors. The ceiling in the bathroom got four coats because of the increased humidity and the probability of water splashing up onto it in the shower.
The water-based finish was supplied by Duro, the flooring maker, as well as filters to ensure that no grit or anything else was in the finish, and applicator pads…
They even sent us the mixing stick! The finish is a catalyzed, water-based polyurethane. According to the instructions, you add 6 ounces of resin (the Catalyst bottle) to the gallon of finish and stir well. Easy. As long as you remember that the gallon needs to be used within four days or it will harden in the can.
We whipped up two poles to attach the pads to and then applied elbow grease liberally. To be honest, it was a little tricky keeping a wet edge on such a large expanse…
The second coat dried very quickly and required moving fast to stay ahead of it. Invigorating exercise.
The finish dried within hours to a dull, not quite matte but far from lacquered, sheen…
Looking good. Next up: the floor.
The ceiling is now completely tiled in cork (click to biggify the grandness)…
I mentioned the other day that Rob has been busy giving us light. The ceiling fixtures are in now…
Also ongoing: tiling the bathroom. Our friend and fellow remodeling pro Mark Cummins has been prepping the walls, furring them out (building them up with wood shims) such that the diminutive wall tiles we’ve chosen will space out perfectly and require no cutting. That required a good amount of mocking-up and measuring. (And patience.) Followed by much re-measuring and marking, just to be safe…
Once Mark was confident we had it right, the 1/2″ cement board went up. In the shower, it’s gone from this…
To this…
That’s the hand-held shower pipe poking through on the right. There will likely be an inset section in that wall for setting soap and sundries… a complication but hopefully not an impossibility. After that, water-based waterproofing and then tiling.
At this rate we may actually have a functional downstairs by summer. Doh! I just cursed us, didn’t I? Fudge.
Ruefully late to the meme, our remodel is finally the site of a planking…
No, not that planking. This planking…
Destined for the floor and ceiling, boxes and boxes of cork planks (Edipo from DuroDesign) have been waiting patiently since last summer…
David and Joe started under the stairs — an out of the way place to practice installing these for the first time. First there was adhesive…
Then the planks went on, staggered…
Almost done…
Sorry, it’s a little dim under there and the shots aren’t so great. It looks nice, take my word for it.
The reason we chose the Edipo was for its linear strips…
We want those strips to run the length of the house rather than the width, because upstairs the angled ceiling that runs front to back is a feature we want to accentuate. Downstairs, the ceiling is flat rather than angled, of course, but it makes sense to be consistent with what we’re planning for upstairs. To that end, the tiling began with a long reference line to keep the planks straight…
The first plank went up and then the boys worked their way down the hall…
You really have to like the guy you’re working with to do this job…
And so the planking continues…
Moving pretty quickly now. This could be done some time tomorrow… well, hopefully.
Very happy with the cork thus far, I must say. How happy? Dancing on the ceiling happy!
David and Joe are downstairs planning the layout for the cork ceiling…
There was math…
What does it all mean?
I have no idea.