Just in case, my deck is nautical themed with Manila rope ( actually made in the Philippines). Here’s a detail of one of the 14 post that will be holding the ropes in place. The front 4 have a solar powered post light.

Of course I would much prefer California to stay where it is. I know a few pretty nice people there.

Tiling is fun. the first 500 square feet. Then the next 500 is kinda repetitive. Guess it’s my fault I wanted a room as large as logs would allow.
Slowly but steadily I’m getting there; floor is now 3/4 done. Tomorrow the area that one day will be the open kitchen and then the hallway.
The result does look nice, if I do say so myself.

This turned out just the way I wanted; built cedar railings on the stairs and second floor, so now nobody can accidentally fall down any more. Nothing but cedar I had laying around to make this, and a welcome change from tiling, which after 1000 square feet becomes a bit monotonous.

Sounds like some western movie title, right? Well, not in Texas. Here, it’s a beer from the Revolver brewery.
The label explains that fortunately this beer does not contain blood, only blood oranges and honey.

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Quite a nice beer actually.

Including Brussel sprouts. Check out the picture below: these sprouts are at least twice as big as Brussel’s Brussel sprouts, and living less than two hours drive from Brussels, I should know.

Besides paper wasps, who luckily pretty much stayed away this spring, there’s some other interesting wildlife on my lot.
Difficult to spot, but there every sunset is a hummingbird, only 3 inches tall and always on the same tree. He (or she, I dunno) inspected the log home last spring;
it was hovering just a few feet away from me.

Below that is a bird of prey (can’t tell the make or model, but do know it’s big). They circle the area, probably looking for small prey,
although maybe this one caught the BBQ that I was doing on the deck.

Today I picked up the tiles and thin set (mortar) for the great room tile floor project.
I had to drive twice as my Ford F150 truck was down on his back suspension with the first load of tiles.
In total it’s about 2176 LBS (close to 1000 kg) of tiles, and another 700 LBS (280 kg) of thin set,
not counting the water to be added. Now all I have to do is put 256 tiles in and I’m done.

Well, with the floor project at least. Plenty of work remains.

BBQ season is now officially open. On the menu tonight is stuffed Jalapeño peppers and flame grilled cheeseburger,
with a Devil’s backbone beer and Blue Bells ice cream for dessert. Life is good 🙂

Today I installed the second sink and faucet, making the double set complete finally.
The mirrors and lights are just temporarily put up; the walls will have to be finished before final installation.

A Log Home has a lot of wood; wooden walls, wooden ceilings, so I thought it would be a nice change to not make the floor wood as well. Also, this is Texas, and summers get a little hot sometimes, so why not tiles? They are easy to clean, cool 😎 to the touch and I received so many positive comments on the tiles in the bathroom that I will put the same tiles in the great room (living room).
As tiles can break when laid directly on a wooden subfloor, the first thing to put in is concrete boards. 32 hardie backer boards actually, looking like this and weighing a ton ( or actually 563 kilogram or 1248 lbs)

All the boards are in now, but again it was too dark to take a picture, so here’s about halfway.
This also shows my Poang Ikea chair, really comfy (posting from it now) and matched the cedar brown and Chink color perfectly.

After finishing a coding project I started tiling this afternoon. Almost 1/4 is in now.
As you can see I started in the center, as that makes for symmetric tiles on all sides.
A bit more tile cutting, but doable.