Feels like forever.
Since I last wrote, I selected the backsplash tile. I wanted the entire exposed wall area to be covered. It took three weeks for the tile to get here from Italy. Mind you, it wasn't what I originally had in mind for the kitchen, but I fell in love with it and convinced myself, from the sample, that it pulled the grays out of the rock fireplace in a good way. Only, the sample had two pieces of tile on it to show the two sizes it came in, and both were matched. I presumed of course that, this being a manmade tile, all the tiles in the batch would be identical. They weren't, and in fact the light colored ones were only about 1 in 8 or 9, the others were darker and went on the all more brown in tone than gray. Beautiful though they were even then in and of themselves, they sucked all the life out of the kitchen. All my special touches, like the fish-scale metal panel behind the stove, no longer stood out as they had before: they competed. UGH. I stopped the tiler after the first day, a Thursday, and said let me think about this over the weekend. Come Monday, I knew I could never be happy with it. VERY. EXPENSIVE. MISTAKE.
I'd also realized that my tiler, a really nice young guy with a young family to support, was technically good at cutting and placing the tile but that he did not invest in pre-planning. He learned his trade putting up tile in the spec homes his family built for a living. So he didn't open several of the boxes and lay out the contents, he didn't compare or plan ahead to absorb or even not use any tiles that were different. Had he done that with even two boxes, we'd have discovered the color variation and could have planned accordingly. Instead, I simply came down and found two really light colored 'tiles (these were six inches wide by 20" tall, being hung vertically) in a row after about 8 dark ones. Even forgiving him for assuming that all the tiles would be the same whatever color they were (he didn't have my experience with the sample), the two light ones should have never gone up. Then came three dark ones, making the lighter tiles look like defects. He put up three more dark ones before I came along and called the halt. A more experienced tiler with an eye for color would never have done this, or at least as soon as he realized the color difference he'd have called me down before proceeding; I was just upstairs.
Disappointing, but with closer supervision he'd do fine on the replacement, I finally decided, and eventually the replacement came in. The replacement was 8" x 20" off white ceramic tiles, very low sheen, with a horizontal ridged relief pattern in them--all texture, no color and almost a dead match for the paint color. We cut those down to 6" panels and installed them three high. They're PERFECT. Tight, tailored, classic, timeless, modern. That job got fnished just this last Saturday.
Meanwhile, the carpet went in three days before, and the audio system went in on Friday. There's more to do--the cabinet guy STILL isn't finished, and he has some repairs to do too. I can't believe, after all I went through to get this guy, what a nightmare he turned out to be. He's arguing that X and X weren't in his estimate, though since they were on the drawings and what I directed him to do, they obviously were, he even annotated the drawings with something that moved from the left side to the right. He believes he's therefore owed more money. I've told him that his amnesia (it's obvious he believes what he's saying) is not appreciated or amusing, and that had he completed the job in the eight weeks he originally predicted instead of dragging it out eight months we wouldn't have been having this conversation, he wouldn't have had time to forget. And what am I owed for being forced to wait this long? And mind you, not just for the kitchen, but for the den, the pantry, the laundry room, the hall, and the powder bath, all of which he did and none of which, save the powder bath, is complete? Anyway, the whole thing gives me an ulcer to think about, so back to the GOOD part: tile's up and it looks great, the carpet's perfect, and the bathroom tile will be delivered on Thursday.
So that's where we are....
