After a few days in the south of the north for a McDonald Christmas it was back to the grinder. Not before a crisp winter's day photograph or two though.
We'd made good use of our physical respite to work out what kitchen appliances we wanted. Once the floor was finished we could start populating it with white goods even if we didn't have the cupboards to put them in. The previous use of the knackered, clogged and grimy washing machine which came with the house saw it cough up its watery guts on the floor so we'd been using the bath to wash clothes as well as the dishes. We were somewhat keen to get a new washer in. Roll on the January sales!
In Bristol we'd bought a little table saw style tile cutter for the princely sum of £45. Seeing as this had mysteriously managed to dismantle itself in the intervening months (and it hadn't been all that impressive) this time we opted for an angle grinder with a masonry disc.
Man made tiles are pretty homogenous and rely on their glazed surfaces for strength to some degree. Natural stone, such as ours, is not homogenous. It has veins and faults and pits, particularly stone like travertine. This means you can't use a score-and-snap type of cutter as even after scoring you'd have no real way of knowing where it would snap.
Luckily the little grinder made short work of the soft stone, the high speed disc slicing through with little resistance. Much better in fact than the purpose built table saw had. If you've got a steady hand it's certainly the choice option. Even if you don't have a steady hand it would probably be okay.
The kitchen was the first on the agenda. All the tiles to be cut would sit underneath cabinets and there were seven pairs of identical cuts to make. Good to practice on if nothing else. After that it's just a question of working through the rooms.
Mainly it was a day of measuring and cutting everything. There were some interesting bits like door frames too. Once all cut it was time to knock up a batch of adhesive and stick it all down.
