Skip a day and it is Thursday!

I did visit the house yesterday. It had been cleaned up a bit inside. The larger mess removed and even some of the smaller rubbish. In fact, some one was inspired by the cleanup - the builder's bin even has an old mat in it?

I have been doing a fair bit of worrying to make up for a day of no blogging.

After my last blog, I had decided to put the contrast tiles into my kitchen. I rang the tiler and asked his opinion. He said don't do it. Somehow we got to talking about the stain resistance of porcelain tiles. You see, porcelain tiles are not glazed. And to get the shine, they are polished. Apparently that means it has micro abrasions and will allow stains to settle amongst the microness.

Now my tiles are 'nano' polished. So that is supposed to mean that the dirt has to be even more cunning to find a tiny place to stick. But I was rattled. What would be the point of having a stainable material as a splashback. I asked the tiler. He said he wouldn't have it on his kitchen floor.

So welcome home Worry!

I worried online until I found a forum talking about it. The story told is that cheap tiles have fat particles in the clay and expensive ones have tiny particles. Fat particles mean fat spaces for dirt to sit. My tiles were cheap so I was ready to guess I was in a bad place.

Then there was a lot of talk about the fussiness of the cleaning fluid you have to use.

Well I plan to keep this kitchen for a decade and more and fussiness isn't my style.

So began operation kitchen mess and cleanup.

We are in stage three now. We have cleaned it with vinegar, then poured oil and curry and soy and tomato sauce onto it. Let it sit while I watched some tv.
Then cleaned it with Nifty. Then I did it again. I am going to leave it until morning.

So far so good!
If it fails, then I go to Pete at Tileflair and buy some tiles like the ones in my bathroom. Actually right now that would be a million times easier.

Tortured Tile and the measurements I have to draw on it

Meanwhile back at the house!

Look!

Tadah! Here is my deck with a pergola!

I am very pleased to see the arrival of the pergola. Eventually it will have laserlight panels on top. Once I have it cemented. If they put the rooking on now, it will act as a kite and sail away!

And the other thing to note in this photo is the rail that Mark has added to the bottom to stop people falling off and also so the nice inspectors will pass the house for me. I have to say I will be eternally grateful to Mark for that. It had been worrying me. A lot. He just did it, no fanfare or fuss.And as you can see the worry part of this is becoming a feature so when Mark got rid of one of them I am particularly appreciative.

The pergola will be painted a charcoal colour to match the frames.

By the way the whole paint colour choice got derailed.

Think 'Tibetan Snow" for the interior and a front door to match window frames. Mark D (Not Mark P) has been my sounding board through all this and he has stuck to his opinion that a white painted house would be superior. After flirting with all manner of not quite whites, I have ended up with Tibeten Snow which is darn close to white :)

This is looking in at the family room. You can see the window at the top of the stairs and the one at the bottom. The next photo shows from inside the bottom window.

This is the view from the hall outside the laundry. 

Try to imagine the lower area filled with 

 pebbles, a Japanese maple and lush green oyster plants.

One sort of downpipe

And they have added downpipes. I told the guy it didn't take much to excite me- so it should come as no surprise to anyone that i took photos of downpipes. There are two sorts. Thick plastic ones and less voluminous metal ones. I am sure there is a good reason why. But I don't have to know to be happily taking photos of them!

PS I have seen the cut lengths of wood to finish the railing .. there is more to it than it currently appears