Granite

Prelude...
oh my oh my oh my... the granite is being installed as I type, though this will likely not get posted until after it's up and I have pictures. It's painful to see them cut through the beautiful, freshly installed tile, but none of the expensive tile is being harmed in the process. But I absolutely can't wait to see what the kitchen and bathroom look like!

Later on...
So, they got here at 1p, and left at 5:30p and installed all the granite, and it looks amazing! We did some serious sweeping, but the rest of the dust will need to settle before we can wash down the house more thoroughly.


First of all-- the truly finished (not merely mocked up) table that Eduardo built. Though decisions still need to be made about varnish... I'm still calling in truly finished...


The rest of the kitchen counters, still propped up a little until everything dries. We even have a kitchen sink now! The space in between the counters will have the stove.


The bathroom sink


And Eduardo getting a little break :)

finished tiles

So the bathroom and the laundry area are finished, with all of the paper off the tiles, and even the excess grout rinsed from around the edges, though we'll probably still need to sand a little bit to get it nice and even.

The next step for the bathroom is to test the water pressure so we know what type of shower to get. And all of the granite in the house will be installed tomorrow (we hope), and the bathroom sink will be installed at the same time. At this point the toilet can also be installed and grouted around the edges, but there's only so many things that can happen simultaneously.

As for the laundry area, the space underneath the sink will be painted, and there will be a cabinet underneath as well, though this cabinet is lower down the priority list (kitchen and bathroom first). The washing machine will go to the right of the sink.

And a few more photos from yesterday: Pirata napping, freshly varnished windows and doors drying inside to avoid the rain, the stoop after the rain, and Eduardo cleaning up the bathroom.

Paint and Tiles Finished!

So the doors and one last window arrived, the tiles are now all installed, and the painting is finished! And we bought a door mat. I realize this is a bit pre-emptive, but we went to do some supermarket tourism (there's a new one in town-- not as nice as the one we currently frequent though) and found a door mat that we liked. The fact that we left a supermarket with *only* a doormat is proof that it's not all that great. Granted, we had just come from our preferred supermarket where we parked to pay bills at the mall, and managed to spend R100 despite the fact that we'd gone in only needing mustard and to spend R20 to not have to pay for parking...

Anyhow, paint and tiles and doors! And the tiles that we had originally purchased for the bathroom arrived as well, though they had been replaced earlier this week due to their extremely slow progress from Sao Paulo. Two months!

I need to take photos of the laundry area since that is now also completed, but for now photos of the bathroom and the last window will need to suffice.

It was varnished today with the doors that arrived and they are currently drying inside due to some afternoon rain showers.

And the last of the bathroom tiles. I'll post a full pictures of the back bathroom wall tomorrow with the picture of the laundry area. At this point the ever important grout had yet to be applied. But at least this is a big improvement from the photo with the paper still covering the tiles.

Happy New Year!!!

Ok, so I realize this is a bit lame-- but my primary new year's resolution is to quit Farmville. Which is part of the significantly less lame theme of more conscious living, and a needed general increase in productivity. This resolution is brought to you by the letters 'P','h', and 'D', and the number "2012".

Apparently I'm not completely on the bandwagon yet, but I've cleaned our desk so I'm not working from bed and checked the deadline for my fellowship renewal and taken some photos of progress in our house!



In some order--
The extreme amount of sawdust on some of the walls allows for an interesting drawing palette, but the door frames are just about sanded down and ready for the rest of the doors that should arrive tomorrow.

The newly chosen outside house color, "Sausalito". It's not as dark as we originally thought we'd go with, but it's nice and cozy.

Grout, maybe not all that exciting... but I spent all of sunday afternoon sanding and scraping around the edges to get no overflow of grout, so I thought it deserved a photo.

The first inside door, currently being bent (by a giant 4 x 4 resting on one of the top corners on the inside of the room) to fit the not-quite-perfect door frame.

My incredibly darling neice, ready for a nap hanging out with her mom in the hammock.

And last, but not least, the incredibly long awaited bathroom tiles. Not the ones we originally ordered (which never arrived ... ) but substitute tiles from the same manufacturer (but not the same store!) which are quite pretty. They're held as sheets by a paper covering on the front, so they're hard to see here, but they're "Oceanic Pearl" and have a bluish tint to the edge.

Here's to a happy and productive 2011! Boas Festas!