I rode to Clearwater and back to the gym to exercise. I stopped at Skinner Blvd in Dunedin to take a picture of the road construction where the Pinellas Trail crosses. The picture above is looking west towards the water.
Looking east. They are adding two roundabouts, one at Highland and one at Douglass, and they're reducing the lanes from four to two. They will add a sidewalk here on the north side and a multipurpose sidewalk to the south side. There will also be bicycle lanes in the street if people prefer that over the multipurpose sidewalk. The trail crossing here has been notoriously dangerous. I think the roundabouts and narrowing of the road will help slow down traffic and make this area more bike-able and walkable. The project begins at Bayshore drive and ends where Main Street splits off from Skinner, but the city commissioners would like to extend the improvements all the way to the city limit over time. It is currently a 5-lane ugly thoroughfare.
The tilers finished the primary bedroom.
They finished the closet.
And they finished the toilet room.
We had six people, not counting us, in our house at one point: three tilers, one boss, one grout layer, and one designer. We got a lot figured out. The shower floor got poured with the linear drain in place. We've spent more time figuring out this space than anything else.
You can see where the tilers ground down the floor to begin the slope. You can see the slope to the drain. They've already cut their tiles for tomorrow and stacked them in place.
The small sliver of tile at the top left shows how much the grade changes. The tiler says that 90% of showers they do require a step-over strip to separate the shower floor from the bathroom floor. He's excited that ours worked out for a smooth transition. He says it's a small thing, but that we will appreciate it.
They figured out how to finish the shower wall tile. The schluter (metal piece) will frame the ends of the wall tile. The glass shower wall will be to the left of the schluter (to keep the shower waterproof). The cement wallboard will get mudded and textured and then painted the color of the wall. The tile boss says it's not an uncommon way to do it and that we won't notice it. He says your eye will go to the glass wall, and the tile and the Schluter, which will be polished chrome. He says the cement board ends will blend in to the wall. We made a note to remind our contractor.
Above the glass wall, the same solution. The tile boss says we already have a lot of pieces jutting out from the wall, such as the soffit in the picture above. He says we won't notice the cement board. He says some people say the wall board makes the shower wall look beefier and more substantial. We'll see.
The tilers sealed the joints of old and new concrete to prevent cracks where the new tub drain and tub filler are now located.
They removed the window sill. The inside of the window will be tiled with floor tile with a polished chrome schuleter at the corner where the window frame meets the wall. In other words, the window will be outlined in polished chrome. The wall will be covered in decorative tile.
The tile is 2" x 12" and will be laid vertically in a random pattern, not like the uniform pattern above. It should look like falling rain in a forest with no discernible pattern. The guy that laid our backsplash in the kitchen will lay it. He works like an artist with paint.
The tilers show up each day around 8:30 a.m. and stay until 5:00 p.m. They are constantly moving. The last thing they did was paint a layer of sealant over the front porch tile so that they can begin tiling over it tomorrow. We will be happy to never see any pink tile. The layout for the new tile will line up with the tile in the house, as if it just flows out the door. The tiler was happy to see we ordered some bullnose tile to use for the finishing edges, both at the door ledge and at the beginning of the porch. He will angle the edge at the sidewalk just a bit to ease the transition to the porch.
The other accomplishment for the day was choosing a grout color. The tile boss brought four samples with his preference pre-determined. He brought the grout in powder form and did a demonstration with two tiles to make a gap. He showed all four and his choice was clearly the best. It will match the color in the tile, making the grout line almost disappear. It's called "warm gray." The grout installer (that's all he does) came to set up his equipment and plan his work for tomorrow. The priority will be 1) stay away from the tilers in the primary bath, and 2) focus on the kitchen, eat-in, and laundry so we can get our kitchen and washer and dryer back in use.
The tile boss said to wait on deciding about the decorative tile grout until it is installed since it has so many colors and variations in it. He says we need to see the entire wall. He leans towards a glass grout that sparkles. We can't quite see that, but we have learned that he has a very good eye for color and texture, so we will wait and see.
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