Thursday, May 24, 2018

Kitchen Remodel #05 Flooring Down


If Gulf Coast Florida is God's waiting room then the Cadillac dealership is the boarding ramp.  Getting mom's DTS diagnosed was a horror of elder exploitation.  

Nonetheless back on the Left Coast and back to work.  Returned to this progress:
Close up to show texture and pattern. 
The tile bowling alley. 

38 comments:

LBD said...

Nice!

Lawyerliz said...

That looks a lot like the tile I chose for my kitchen in the Deerwood house in the Miami house. My faughter said it was fake travertine. Maybe yours is real travertine. Rich.

Rob Dawg said...

Liz. I am too poor but more importantly too smart to use "real" travertine. Real travertine is soft, porous and brittle. This is the far superior "fake" travertine. A pressed ceramic. Not so pretty yet. It hasn't been washed, sealed or polished yet.

Lawyerliz said...

Yep, I loved mine, except I chose light grout. NEVER choose light grout.

Lawyerliz said...

I didn't know it was travertine, fake or not
I just knew I liked it.

Rob Dawg said...

The grout will get darker with the seal. Yes, we are agreeing that the grout should never be in the is it dirty zone.

dilbert dogbert said...

I hope your mom's DTS is not the dts I found via The Goog. If so, I wish you and her well.

Rob Dawg said...

I can pretty much guarantee it was the worst of the DTS series and that is saying something.

Jim the Realtor said...

I like the tile pattern! Can we call that herringbone-esque?

Rob Dawg said...

JtR. You can decide for yourself next Tim but yes.

Rob Dawg said...

Next time.

Jim the Realtor said...

It is a very interesting pattern that I don't think I've seen before (and I've seen my share). The uniqueness gives the room a super-custom look.

Your idea, or the installer's?

Lawyerliz said...

Jim! Long time, no post.

Lawyerliz said...

Looked it up, oh dear.

Rob Dawg said...

JtR, you already know the answer but thanks for the compliment. Sorry we missed the party. The pattern was very hard to design. I spent a long time on widths and repeats and angles. I eventually decided upon a an edgy 60 degree small long with onset Roman band as best but realized that would not fly either with the contractor or the family harmony.

Jim the Realtor said...

>> I eventually decided upon an edgy 60 degree small long with onset Roman band as best....

Ha! It would have taken your contractor six months to install it!

Rob Dawg said...

No, it would have taken another contractor 6 months. These guys are pros and know when to step away from a deal.

On that note. The tile guy said he was done. Left rough grout on the tiles and never sealed. Came today and apparently removed all the rough grout and sealed the 12x33 room by himself in 1-1/2 hours.

NOT!

Called the general contractors and put a drop of water on the grout line and watched it sink in. He didn't seal. GCs were wishy washy. Took my finger and wiped it along the edge of the grout line and came up dusty. Never saw sealant. GCs still defensive for their friend. I hate going full homeowner. Never go full homeowner but this time...

Result. The cabinets are delayed. The tile people will be back. The dawg is feared.

Rob Dawg said...

And a side note. The tile pattern will be far less impressive when the cabinets go down.

Rob Dawg said...

Of course the cabinets will be all that more impressive.

Lawyerliz said...

I fear the dawg---not!!

Lawyerliz said...

What's the Cadillac dealer about?

Rob Dawg said...

My brother was supposed to take me someplace. Instead he kidnapoed me for a few minutes to the Cadillac dealer to diagnose my mom’s DTS. 90 mins and $120 later we find out it is $1000 for the defects to be reset to factory original defects. All that time I watched a dozen elderly customers sign off on unnecessary work and necessary repairs at 4x a fair price. It made me sad.

Cinco-X said...

Mornin', y'all...

Rob Dawg said...

Mornin' I am still a little east coast time.

LBD said...

Good Morning from the Flat lands!

Pool nice and warm 84F. Finish up today for weekend guest.

Lawyerliz said...

Glutin Morgan

Happy Everything day hullooolllloo

Lawyerliz said...

A good time to be

LBD said...

Cadillac isn't back to the image of a super luxury car and probably won't in the near future. Financial punishment is part of the game. The price of image is no different with any brand anymore.

My tile work from the past, field on the diagonal and the boarded straight ceramic, granite inlay with, 1/8" silicone grout. Easy maintenance.

https://imgur.com/n49mA0E

Rob Dawg said...

Beautiful job LBD.

Rob Dawg said...

The contractors love my high tech tile inspection kit. A golf ball. Boyce it and listen to the sound. A good bond clicks. A void clunks. Then you roll to uncover rough grout and dips. Fast and fun.

Lawyerliz said...

Bounce?

LBD said...

Thanks, I am a good hack.

The tone of the bounce is different if there is a void. Works on finding voids under concrete floors.

Time to go float in the pool!

Lawyerliz said...

We filled in a turtle hole and she dug it right out again.

Lawyerliz said...

Turtles in the front and in the back. Any body want one? Need to put ml bricks in the stubborn turtles hole.

Rob Dawg said...

Cabinets are here. Unassembled. Appliances in 3 hours. Exciting to be filling up after so much emptying out.

Jim the Realtor said...

Did I tell you that we took the plunge last summer? It was more of a used-Lexus kitchen, because we went higher-end except with cabinets off the boat from China.

The cabinet install was a hoot. The installer puts in a 9-inch spacer the first day, and when I object, he says they brought the wrong size cabinet so it was the only way to make it work and keep moving. I go full homeowner, so his boss comes over.

She tells me that she already told him that this is his last job for her, and to hurry it up. Great, thanks for that tidbit - no wonder he is mailing it in. I ended up having to get a different guy to tune up the whole kitchen once they were done.

We got the same Thermador appliance as you - and love it.

We did the quartzite counters which look great, but already have a couple of minor dings in the edge around the sink, which was a surprise. Quartzite was supposed to be as hard or harder than granite? Or maybe one party was all it took?

LBD said...

Stories and experiences like that made me in to a DIY guy. At least I know who to blame if it doesn't go right. Wife didn't want me to do tile counter tops (granite), so she called the only guy in town who could do granite, I had the materials already and he wanted $3K. I asked how long and he said two days. Pretty big money fifteen years ago, so I continued on doing it myself. Not bad for my first time including beveling the edges and all. No chips dings or loose tiles as of today.

Rob Dawg said...

Appliances are here. Yah!
New post.