First, I did manage to apply the elastomeric stucco paint (two coats) on the outside front of the pottery studio, and stain/paint the fascia/eves along the front of the house. For this photo, I've placed some new shingles along the edge of the roof, showing the future lighter color.
Back to the floor tile. Did I mention I had to order more tile? And that the colors were different with the adobe brown. Well, same thing with the gray tile — three different shades — so some artistic adaptations were required, not only to accommodate the different shades of tile, but I also adjusted patterns to minimize how much tile I had left. In other words, if I needed a little more tile to finish the floor, I would use what I had rather than buy another box of the perhaps ideal size/color.
As I mentioned before, it's an art studio :-)
Here's getting the pattern sorted out and the tile starting to go down:
The walls were still yellow in that photo. Here's what the tile looks like all laid down and grouted (the walls now off-white). The cabinets and counter on the left have yet to be installed; there will be a cubby between the cabinets for a stool to slide under the counter.
I did try out the sulfamic acid scrub on a portion of the grout in the north section of the studio. Here you can see the difference between the treated grout and the grout with the white efflorescence. It really works. (The colors in the photo are not accurate, but you can see that the cleaned grout color matches the tile color.)
I lay the tile and grout a section at a time, and it doesn't take too long to do a section, but then I let it dry for a day before doing the next section. So I've been working on the windows in the workshop during the rest of the day. I will post on that progress within a few days. The workshop had been a bedroom, and before it was converted to a bedroom, it had been the back half of the garage. That conversion, as I discovered when I removed the drywall, was a celebration of structural incompetence (but more on that in the next post).
They installed two of those flimsy aluminum single-pane windows in the corner of the room. I wanted a single window in the middle of the wall, so I am removing the two old windows and adding a new one. Because the outside of the wall is covered with stucco, I needed to do a lot of masonry cutting with a diamond blade in a circular saw. Well, this is what it looks like:
At this point, one of the old windows has been removed and the wall restructured and prepared for a new application of stucco. I also restructured the wall where the new window is, cut out a big square of stucco, and installed the new Andersen window (needs stucco patch around its frame). To run my power tools, I cut a small hole in the corner of the screen in the old window on the right for an extension cord.
Unfortunately, it was big enough for my two favorite (indoor-only) cats to squeeze through, ripping the opening bigger in the process. I had left the window open for some fresh air, and only realized they could get through the hole Monday evening before bed. I closed the window then, assuming they were still inside (with five cats, it's not always easy to keep track).
Between 3 and 4 a.m., I heard cat screams from out back, and searching the house, found two missing. I then opened the window they had used, and enlarged the opening in the screen enough for them to re-enter. I also set out my cat trap, with a small bowl of cat food inside. I should note my cats are all rescued ferals, trapped to have them spayed/neutered, vaccinated, de-wormed, etc., which is why I have a feral cat trap.
But why am I telling you about this? The two escapees are my favorites, my oldest (I've had nine years), a small female who had a hard life before I rescued her, and my youngest — Sami (I've had 4.5 years, my only male), rescued as a 4-5 month-old malnourished kitten (with a big head and tiny body). They're my children. And Southern California is not a safe place for outdoor cats and small dogs, because of the coyote population.
Photo from my last east-coast house (Sami in front and my number one relaxing in the background):
Having them missing has been traumatic, and remodeling work has suffered. The good news is my first cat returned the next night at 2:45 a.m., meowing outside the sliding screen door next to my bed. She wouldn't come in by herself; I had to go outside and carry her in. That was a huge emotional relief.
Feral cats aren't the same as domestic; they're physically the same, but psychologically, they obey a different set of rules. They're territorial. If they leave the group—their territory, and want to be accepted in again, they feel they have to ask and be invited back in. Males are routinely expelled when they reach maturity, and have to find and defend their own territory.
Sami got out once before, back east, and stayed relatively close to the house. I could tell because I could hear his run-ins with the dominant neighborhood feral. He didn't come back on his own; I put my trap out and he took the bait in the middle of the night after about a week (I heard the trap door slam shut and went out, thinking I had gotten the dominant feral, and planning to relocate him). But it was Sami. Took him a couple of days to readjust to domestic life.
If they're used to coming to your door for food every day for many months, they are more likely to return to the house (like my small female). I trapped Sami within days of starting to feed him, and brought him inside immediately. If he's able to stay alive for two or three weeks, he likely will return looking for food or water, or security. I don't think he'll come in though the window, but the trap may work.
Until he returns, I will be distracted.
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