Floor. Done.

After 9 hours on my hands and knees, one sliced finger and two people banished from the house, we have a kitchen floor. I really have to stop saying "that doesn't look hard".

It was.

Hard.

I started Friday; a very hot and humid Friday, after dropping Ariana off at camp. With the air-conditioning blasting, I had about 5 1/2 hours to finish before I had to pick her up. Assuming that would be enough time (ha!!), I got the supplies all ready and applied the glue to the sub floor, using a brush on the sides and a roller for the rest of the floor. After an hour, it was dry and ready for the tiles. "Wait, how do I do this again?", I thought as I stared nervously at the floor. I quickly realized my first mistake; gluing the entire floor when I need to put the border around first. After a few sticky moments when I thought I might be attached to the sub floor forever, I finally got enough new tile down to make the rest of the installation glue free. The cutting though, seemed to go on forever. Given I was using cork, it was pretty easy, but still, it was a relief when I hit an area when I could lay down more than two tiles without having to cut.

Sticky and sweaty, a quick glance at the clock made it obvious I was not going to be able to pick Ariana up - luckily, baba-san was working from home, so he went and got her and her friend and took them out for ice-cream. The last thing I needed was two 5-year-olds wanting to "help". I was getting tired and the brisk pace now was slowed down by bad cuts on the tile and one slip that resulted in a Sponge Bob Squarepants band-aid on my thumb. I had just changed the blade on the knife, so at least the cut was clean. And really, I was putting in the sweat and tears (almost, a few times when I thought "I can't do this"), why not a little blood?

It was after 5 when baba-san returned and I was not nearly finished. We had a birthday party to go to and I sent them on without me; needing to finish before the glue lost it's stick. I have to admit some of the tiles are a bit messy, but by the time it got past 8pm, I just wanted to be done. Finally, at 8:15pm, the last bit of tile was placed. I grabbed a quick shower and went off to relax with friends, physically exhausted.

Sunday morning came with a soreness I hadn't felt since I had a really good workout (which hasn't happened in eons). It took me awhile to get moving. Wishing I could just lounge for the morning, I knew I had to varnish the floor, sealing the cracks (some a bit larger than intended) so water wouldn't ruin the floor. That was easy and only took about 20 minutes.

We left for another birthday party, spending the day away, leaving the floor to dry in peace. When we returned late last night, the floor was shiny and dry.

Today we will put the house back together; tomorrow after everyone has left for the day, I will put another coat of varnish down and then take myself out; a massage perhaps?