649 6th

day 6: cutting porcelain

Today I spent a good deal of the day waiting on the appliance delivery guys. In the end it was a pretty straight froward exchange. By the time they got here I had the new/old (had just replaced it on the old unit-- never used) 220 power cord removed and ready to install on new simple mechanically switched dryer. Why dryers come without a power cord I never really understand, but they don't.

The dryer gets hot and the freezer gets cold. All I could really ask for. The basement getting clean was just a perk.

Now it's back to the bathroom. Yesterday I said I was going to try out the Dremel tool today. Afer reading up a bit more I think it would be fine for cutting the heardiebacker (outlets and what not), but not nearly as well suited for cutting the porcelain tile. I went down to Greschler's the local "to the trade" supply house. Actually, I had been to the Depot earlier (Dremel bits, and an icecream sandwich) but Grescheler's is the fancy shop that tends to be a bit more high end. They have scant weekend hours so it was a treat to get to go in on a weekday. I ended up with a stone, marble and granite cutting blade. The idea is that we will use it on the rotary saw. If this doesn't work any better it will be on to renting a wet saw or getting someone else to cut the tricky pieces.

Not a lot for a day, but it was singularly one of the most gorgeous summer days we've had. Meaning: I spent a good deal of time just sitting in the back yard enjoying life... I am on vacation after all.

mud on, mud off

Most of the materials we've added to the house get put into place and stay there, but recently we've been working a different class of material that goes on and then comes almost entirely back off. These are the gooey materials: sheetrock mud, tile adhesive, grout, and caulk. You trowel, spade and squeeze a surplus of this stuff into place before scraping it off again.

It was working tile grout that drove home the peculiarity, almost the perversity of these materials' application for me. Working the grout into the cracks and scraping it off the tile surface was deceptively easy -- adjusting the float angle depending on whether I was scraping on or scraping off. As I was finishing the first pass with the well-wrung sponge, only slightly relishing the lactic burn in my shoulders, and sensing that the real work had only just begun, the thought sprang to mind: "wax on, wax off".

Hours later, sponge in tatters, still shaping the grout to a fine line between tiles, I flexed my aching muscles and took pause to honor Ralph Macchio, true hero of the repetively stressed.