This vacation's accomplishment(s)
Good evening fellow Creekers,
I took off the past week and burnt some of my use or lose military leave I had sitting on the books. My goal was to have the granite counter top and 8x10 tile back splash installed. I can tell you as of right now I am pooped. Some of the things that needed to happen before I could do all this was right a term paper, complete a final exam, remove the old counter tops, set a new cabinet drop 2 other cabinets and rehang. More importantly get LOML to make a decision on what sink to buy. Found the faucets we liked on sale at 1/2 price that was a good thing. There are so many lessons learned...where to begin. Well I guess the number one rule is Murphy's Law....If you are working on a spring loaded project and a small part flies off and hits the trash can the odds of you finding it again are a gazillion to 1. Hardibacker might be better than cement board but cutting a hole for a sink using nothing more than basic non-dust making tools and NOT breaking the board is impossible. Do not mix up too much thin set at a time. If you miscut a tile do not set it down when you go out to cut the next one, when you come back to install it you are bound to pick up the wrong one. If you are looking for a very specific thing at the BORG, it will be at the other one...You can never ever get everything you need in one trip EVER!
On the plus side, the Dremel tool is an absolute must....It does a great job of nibbling the tile AFTER its installed and you realize the outlet screw hole is covered up. The HF tile saw has already paid for itself, no question about it. It worked like a champ and was easy enough for LOML to use it. Granite may be somewhat labor intensive to get it in but once its in its beautiful. A paint stirrer for your drill does a great job mixing small amounts of grout. Well at least for awhile, it didn't last until completion. The big paint stirrer does a great job of mixing thin set. My X5 still does things I had never thought of. I am SOOO glad I went for the 52" fence I used it to make one cut this week at 51". The X5 will even trim off small amounts off the bottom of 12" cabinets when they are too tall.
On my side hobby, Habit for Humanity, the union brick layer apprentices from Xenia put on the crawl space last weekend. We provided grunt work to move the block around. Saturday with the assistance of some military folks from WPAFB we backfilled the 44' side 4' high and 4' wide the morning after it had rained very hard. It was gestimated that we moved 450+ wheel barrow loads. Needless to say my arms and back were spent by time I got home yesterday.
As of right now the granite is down and grouted, all the cabinets are now installed, minus doors. Tile back splash is in, new sink is installed and operational, only one minor adaptation needed, and yes one trip to the BORG. All in all the kitchen has taken a huge step forward now all I need to do is finalize the design for the cabinet doors and we are off and running again. Now I need to go work so I can recouperate.....
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Pictures, Bryan, we need,....No, we require pictures from all that ambitious work!!! 
Regardless, sounds quite productive! 
If no pix, it didn't happen.