Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Upper Bath floor tiles.
You can see the WarmFloor heating element through the first layer of thinset. The bathroom thermostat has a floor sensor in it that was set to 80 degrees. WAY TOO WARM for my bath. Might be okay in winter, but I set it at 65 now. The tiles are a nice octagon mosaic. 
Using a similar colored grout settles down the "checkerboard" look of the mosiacs. This is my 1954 American Standard lav bought as salvage from a fancy old mansion in Seattle. It's part of the lav, toilet, bath set that I got for $140. Double click for a close up on the floor tiles. Still needs mop board tiles and the tub surround.
Fireplace gets finished.
Expanded metal lath is cut to shape for the fireplace tile surround.
The lath is just held in place with lath screws into the Rastra wall and plaster base coat. It will end up getting cemented to the basecoat, so the fastenings are just enough to get the plaster on it.
This is the thinset mortor pressed into the expanded metal lath to create a base of steel and cement on which to attach the fireplace surround tiles.
I'm plastering the entire fireplace wall. The dark spots on the wall are sconces that will be above the mantle.
Here's a trial fit of the mantle. You can see that the plaster on the wall is still hardening. I'm holding the mantle up with a 2x4, but a cleat is bolted to the wall and the mantle will hang from it.
The art tiles are then set around the thinset and lath surround and the mantle is put back up on the cleat.
Here's a close up on the art tiles.
