The Ice Man cometh... and stayeth

When this renovation is finally done, I think I'm going to put the house on the market... and move to San Diego or Florida because I am exceedingly tired of this winter weather.

Just kidding, mostly, but man all this snow and ice and bitter cold temperatures is disheartening. We were without power for 3 and a half days last week. We got electricity back Friday afternoon, and I gleefully called Wagner and told him the good news. He was elated as well and lined things up with the tile guys to resume work on Monday. We packed up our clothes, cat, rats, and guppies and moved back to the house, where we enjoyed exactly two glorious nights of electricity. Sunday morning, though, Jon was outside shoveling snow when he heard the big "Boom!" of a transformer blowing out, and we were plunged into darkness and cold once again. So once again Wagner had to call off the workers and once again we had to pack up kids, pets, belongings and move back to Jonathan's office. It took another couple of days for the power to come back on, this time for good--we hope. Cross your fingers.

Of course we had thrown out all the food in the freezer the first time the power came back on and bought replacements... which I then had to throw out again. Sigh.

But finally, finally we were able to get Larry (the tile guy) back in action. I just love talking with him. He is a true crafstman in every sense of the word, and it is gratifying to see just how deeply he cares about doing a good job. The other day we were talking about some issue of the tile layout, and he casually mentioned that he had been "thinking about your job while lying in bed last night." I laughed and told him that I hoped he had much better things to think about at night than my shower. He replied that he took his work seriously and enjoyed doing jobs like ours, where it wasn't just a simple floor but more like "artisanship."

The shower is done, and the rest of the tile work will be completed today or tomorrow. We have to stay off it for 24 hours, but after that I'll take some photos and post them. It is absolutely gorgeous and well worth the considerable amount we went over budget for it. Here's a teaser photo of the floor with the medallion that didn't come out too well because the sunlight was glaring on it (I couldn't walk on the floor to take it from the other angle). It hasn't been grouted yet and will look a lot better afterwards, but this will give you a feel for what it will look like: