Friday, March 31, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
Chalkboards
After much ado, the slate is down. I purchased a number of old chalkboards that were salvaged from the old Tacoma Stadium High School from the ReStore last spring. After having to cut and clean old mastic from the surfaces, I ran into some problems with adhesion of the slate chalkboard surface to the thin-set. After having to pull up two sheets and chisel the hardened cement off the floor with a 1.5" cold chisel and a hammer for 2 hours, I swore I would never do tile/stone again. It looks like the instructions on the thin-set tell you to mix the stuff too thick, and with the dry porous slate surface contacting the dry thin-set, I could not get the adhesion needed.
It became clear that I was violating a number of stone installation rules:
Tiles as large as 42"x 42"
Very thin application of thin-set to have floor surface match up with the existing floor
Using old recycled slate blackboards with a very smooth ground surface for adhesion
Having to pull out warped slate with the thin-set adhesion
I now have to seal the slate so I can grout the cracks, seal it again, and we can move the island and stove back into position to have a working kitchen again.
It became clear that I was violating a number of stone installation rules:
Tiles as large as 42"x 42"
Very thin application of thin-set to have floor surface match up with the existing floor
Using old recycled slate blackboards with a very smooth ground surface for adhesion
Having to pull out warped slate with the thin-set adhesion
I now have to seal the slate so I can grout the cracks, seal it again, and we can move the island and stove back into position to have a working kitchen again.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Plants & Pinecones
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Ventus
I finally installed the range hood this weekend. Not too bad of a job once the location was finalized. The hood was the most inexpensive island hood that exists (around $700) and it seems like it will do the job. There are of course some poor design issues mostly having to do with the details. I will have to sand off the terrible "Euro Kitchen) logo of course. It is definitely not the most attractive thing out there, but I have only been impressed with ones costing $2500 or more and that is just not where I am going to spend the dollars.
http://www.euro-kitchen.com/
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