a work in progress….
And finally….. here’s the main transition from a flourescent bar with a white ceiling…… to a recessed light, painted ceiling!
At this point the lights are fully enclosed with the ceiling tile & only 3 panels remain unpainted. Up close individual ceiling tile shots to follow over the course of the next week or so.
Here’s what I worked on on Sunday after K ditched me to do laundry instead of going biking:
This is furniture refinishing ‘lite’…. the shelf wasn’t in particularly bad shape to begin with. There were just a couple of dings and scratches, plus a 3″x4″ spot where someone had spilled something that practically fused some cardboard on to one of the shelves. That was the hardest thing to fix without scratching the shelf more since it was really stuck on there. I probably could have sanded the sides more, but I got bored and/or antsy to just get it done 
Now it’s chock full of books in my bedroom.
Here’s what I’ve been complaining about working on the last few weeks. Done. Finally. This took way longer than tiling the front porch with slate. The front porch was 54 sq ft, this back one is 96…. but it took far more than twice the amount of time/effort/materials. Luckily, it’s done. Just before winter. wonderful. Keep your fingers crossed that the workmanship is solid enough to withstand the freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw that is Wisconsin winter…. I guess my new project next spring might be “Learn how to repair tile flooring” which isn’t necessarily a bad skill to have…
I think I need to arrange a porch-warming party in the next month or so…. perhaps with some grilled food and a bonfire… hmmmm….
I promised my neighbor I’d restore his frontdoor Buddha back to his earlier gloriousness. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.
The bench pre-tiles….
The tiles on the counter….
Tiles are attached w/ thin-set…
The next day is grout…
After cleaning off the grout…
unfortunately…. the bench is curved and that is leading to structural integrity issues… I just got an update today, and I hear that the grout is cracking and there’s at least 1 loose tile 
BEFORE:
(picture missing – I am looking for it)
I can’t find a picture w/ my old (beat up, aluminum) door… but here’s what my door looked like at the height of my DIY misery…. notice there are multiple layers of house I had to take off in order to get this to work…
AFTER!
…is very nice – no?
So… this actually happened way back in April, but I finally found the old picture for comparison… my big bathroom’s faucet went from this:
to THIS:
Much nicer – eh?
(Don’t worry —the mosaiced tiles are still inthe bathroom, but instead of leaning against the backsplash, they now are hung up on the wall as they were intended
First… the gosh-awful carpeting in a crowded front porch… I’m sure that part of the awfulness stems from the not very cleaned up porch that resulted from the door-installation fiasco of the previous weekend (pictures of that forthcoming in the next week or so, too)
Did you say you wanted a close-up of that?
Welll….
OK…
After removing the carpet, I see that there’s a lovely cement slab base to start from!!! (actually, I knew that already or else I wouldn’t have sprung for the slate tiles)
So I lay out my tools… before this (I didn’t post a picture of it, but I have one if you are interesed) I opened the boxes of slate tiles & set them all out on my driveway, where I hosed them off, let them dry and then sprayed them with their first coat of pre-grout sealant.
Took a short coffee/tea break after laying down 20+ square feet of slate….
Apparently took (a very important) break just 8 tiles later…
Phew. Here’s what the floor looked like after ~8 hours of tile-laying. Each of these tiles had been handled no fewer than 6 times before being installed… carried to car, set out on driveway for clean & seal, carried in to porch for Layout #1, rearranged into current layout, moved over & out of the porch so I could start installing, and finally each one picked up and back-buttered for maximum stickage & tile-eveness…
Yep. those are the *technical* terms 
The (almost) final product… it’s been grouted with a lovely “pewter” colored grout and is currently curing so that I can put 2-3 coats of another sealant on…. I’m thinking I will use one that will give a *slight* shine to the tiles without actually making them super glossy…