Even though I still have about 16 more tiles to lay, I decided to clean and seal the current 23 before moving forward. It’s been too rainy to lay any more tiles [since I have to use the wet saw outside, etc.] so it seemed like a good use of my time.
This post addresses a very valuable “lesson learned”. I was planning to lay more tile Tuesday afternoon, but I decided to first tidy up the mess on the tiles I’d already laid. There were spots, glops, drops, & smears of thin-set mortar on all 23 of the tiles I’d laid earlier this week. I figured I could scrub them off later with a kitchen sponge. Wrong! Oh so wrong.
I think this is the longest I’ve gone without posting in a while. There’s been some drama going on behind the scenes which has affected my focus in terms of blogging. But that doesn’t mean stuff hasn’t been happening! I laid 12 tiles in the front hall on Saturday, and 11 more today. I’m about ⅔ done!
Two weekends ago I found a stack of spare tiles in the basement, belonging to our condo. I grabbed one and used it to replace the cracked tile in the master bathroom. I used a grout-removal tool to scrape the old grout out, a cold chisel and ball peen hammer to chip the remaining mortar chunks out, and Tile Replacement Mortar to frost the new tile and pop it into place.
I spent 10 hours this weekend in the basement. I tidied up the common areas [shared by the 3 condos in our house], cleaned our cage, and claimed ownership of a “no man’s land” storage area that was previously buried under junk. So much junk! It was exhausting. I am still sore. But it was so worth it! Hubby was out of state visiting a friend Saturday and Sunday morning, so I got to organizing! I always do my best work when he’s out of town *nods*.
I started work on the catio on 6/17/15 and finished on 8/20/15. This slideshow reduces 2 months of work down to 8 minutes. Which I realize is kind of long… there is a fast-forward arrow you can use to speed it up! The slideshow should start automatically. If you only see a grey box, click the box to start the slideshow. There are captions under each photo.
If you can believe it [I couldn’t!!!] the cost of materials for the cat enclosure came to $989. The biggest expenses were the wood [$300], the cat door [$100], the cushions [$100], and the metal braces/connectors [$140]. But still – OMFG!!! If I had to do it over I could probably swing it for $750-$800. But it would be really hard to create this beast for less than that!
This was by far my most favorite project I’ve done yet! It was amazing to go from conception to completion in 3 months. I designed and built it all by myself, it’s the first thing I’ve ever built. It’s 6’x6’x3′ and the frame is made of 2×4’s. The catio was completed in 2015, and upgraded in 2016 & 2017.
OMG!!! I can’t honestly believe it’s done. It’s consumed so much of my time and thoughts for the past 2 months. But it’s actually DONE!
