Now I know the true worth of a contractor. It's not just how good a job they do, it's how they respond to adversity. Rick Owens may be the best contractor ever. The sink broke Friday night. Rick came over then and again on Sunday evening to discuss what we'd do the next day.

Monday morning at 8:00 he was here with Mr. Plumber. We decided to keep the fixtures (I really do like them) but they are now attached to the water supply much differently. We have been declared water-tight. 

Also here at 8:00 were Miguel and Juan who spent the day taking up the floor in the bedroom. Juan remarked that whoever put the floor down did a really good job :-). It was hard work. The glue scraped up better than any of us thought it would – maybe it hadn't had a chance to fully cure?

Today, Tuesday, Miguel and Juan got up the rest of the warped flooring…

Funny that I've never taken a photo from this corner of the bedroom. You can see into my studio on the right and down the hall on the left. The unaffected wood floor is just out of site in both directions.

State Farm has been out and that's in the works but you know what? I'm sure that Rick would have made this right regardless. So, if you are shopping for a contractor, try to find out what they have done for someone else when things went wrong.

I was talking about water things with Rick and did find out that we should have had our very fine tankless water heater flushed out annually. It has been at least 3 years since it's been looked at. Mr Plumber came back and it's now clean.

We're not doing this year, but Keven (Mr. Plumber) told me about a pan that goes under the water heater that has a sensor. It takes batteries or plugs in and is attached to a shut-off valve. If water hits the pan, the water automatically shuts off. Who knew?! Next year we're going to have that installed.

I spent today busy but I'm not exactly sure doing what. Oh! I know one thing I did… I had to buy a new iron. My $89 Rowenta succumbed to our lousy water. It started losing lots of water out of it's base (what is it with me a water?) and then it started spitting brown rocky grains of something. Probably calcium. I gave up and bought a classic Black & Decker. I'm sure I'll kill it too, but it is heavy and not that expensive.

I hope to be able to focus better tomorrow. It's nearly July and I have no idea where June went!

Carol posted a question about the rock tiles in our new shower that I showed in this post. I thought others of you might be curious about them as well.

I first saw pebbles, or small river rocks, used in a shower floor when I visited Linda in Grand Junction. They looked just like smooth stones sunk into sand and Linda loves them. She has sensitive feet and told me that they felt fine underfoot. When I went tile-hunting, that's what I had in mind. Then I found these:

I left my feet in the shot so you could get a feel for the scale of the rocks. These are river rocks that have been sliced and then glued to a 12" x 12" mesh backing. They are at least 1/4" thick. I liked the fact that they are flat, like tile. I also liked their nearly white coloring.

I knew I wanted the grout to be the color of dirt because it wears better. I probably should not have been surprised that when the rock floor was grouted and sealed, the color of the rocks changed – a lot.

Luis grouted the floor once (and sealed it) and we used the shower. However, as a little time went by, the grout shrank and got lower between the rocks. Luis came back and added more grout. If you do this yourself, remember that grouting something like this is probably a two-step process.

The grout is now not quite level with the tops of the rocks. Standing in the shower with wet, bare feet is fine. In fact, I feel very secure. This is not a slippery floor.

You might have read at the bottom of the post I referred to above that our cat, Emma, had been peeing in the shower. The essential oils didn't work, the (expensive) odor remover/cleaner didn't work. But Cindy posted an excellent suggestion. She said her sister made tents from aluminum foil to keep her cats off of the furniture. So far, this is working – many thanks to Cindy!

FYI – I used heavy duty foil which is a little wider than the normal foil. It's not lovely, but it's not awful either.

That's what I was thinking last night as I was moving towels from the washer to the dryer. It was 8:35 PM, I had gotten up from the movie and my sewing, and I heard water. I thought: "Water is running, somewhere. Is the sprinkler system on? Why is the sprinkler on?"

I said to Steve: "I hear water running." And he said "You turned the dishwasher on."

And I thought "I didn't turn the dishwasher on. You turned it on – and you forgot that you did." Honestly, ladies, isn't that what you would think too? So, with the dryer now on, I went to the kitchen. The dishwasher was not on. I felt bad for assuming that Steve was so forgetful and then I thought, "why do I hear water?"

I walked through the living room and into my studio, headed for the bedroom and bathroom. It sounded like Steve was in the shower, except that he was sitting there, on the sofa. Just about then, I stepped into hot water. I speeded up, and rounded the corner as the water was getting deeper and deeper. 

Did I take a picture? No, I did not. If I was younger, much younger, I would have been snapping away :-). You will have to imagine a waterfall, like this:

flowing out from under the cabinet door under this sink:

Many things happened in rapid succession:

• I hollered to Steve.
• I probably used a 4-letter word. Maybe more than once.
• I pulled open the cabinet door, knowing that there is a shut-off knob.
• Hot, hot hot water spilled out and my glasses must have fogged up because I couldn't see anything. And the water was HOT. And I my feet were in lots of water!
• I suggested (probably loudly) that Steve should GO OUTSIDE AND TURN OFF THE WATER!!! He did. The waterfall stopped.
• I called, and then texted Rick, our contractor. 
• I called Chris – 'HELP!"
• Steve and I got towels and 5 gallon buckets. I was thinking that we'd wring the water out into the buckets. Not a great idea. The water was 1/2"-1" deep and covered the bedroom and half of my studio. 
• Steve got the Shop-Vac. Great idea! I got the extension cord.
• Rick called, said he and Juan were coming.
• Chris showed up with lots of towels. He and I and Steve got busy.

(Sidebar: Steve read this and said that he was the one who got to the bathroom first. He's probably right. Memory is such a funny thing. That would explain why, when I said that I don't remember what I saw under the sink… it's because he had already looked at it. But I know I looked too 🙂 – and I'm sure I suggested that he go outside to turn off the water. I think.)

We had the majority of the water off of the floor before Rick and Juan got here, by around 9:10 PM. All things considered, that was pretty fast.

This is the culprit. The (naked) end of the black plastic hose should be connected to the thing at the top of the oval knob on the left. That is the hot water supply. With the hose off, and the water on, water shot up and to the right like a hot geyser.

We store our toilet paper in this area. It's funny, but as we were sopping up the mess I kept wondering what the little bits of paper were. It was the toilet paper that was dispersed with the water! Weird.

The bathroom and kitchen sink fixtures are top of the line. We got them not at a big box store, but at a local plumbing supply. I love them. However, Rick said that he's seen this sort of problem once before with the same sort of fixture. The connector on these is different. We may be changing our sink fixtures, to ones with an old-school sort of connector. For now, the water is turned off in both bathrooms and (most of the time) to the kitchen fixture.

By 10:00, all of the water was sopped up, Rick and Juan were gone, and Steve and Chris and I had fortified ourselves with a bit of good scotch. All of us had fingers crossed that we had gotten the water up soon enough to save the floors.

Got up this morning to realize that the floor (in half the hallway, our bedroom, and my studio) is toast. I took photos. With the flash, the color is good but it's harder to see the damage.

The color is bad, but you can see that the edges of the planks are curling up:

You know, this floor cost too much money to live with it this way. I have no idea how they are going to get it off of the slab (because the glue is more than strong) but there must be a way.

We went to OKC this morning to visit Steve's family. We came home to many, many loads of wet towels.

I have a blog post already written for Monday morning so you won't see news of this in that post. I will, however, let you know what happens. 

Do you remember the dish towels from our book, Applique With Attitude? I've been using mine in the new kitchen!

These dishtowels are appliqued with big stitches in perle cotton – fast and cute. I've been meaning to share with you what I learned from the Prescenia folks about their threads at quilt market.

Prescencia perle cotton is colorfast and bleach-fast. It doesn't shrink. These are things I knew but it's nice to see that it's really true when I wash and dry projects made with it in my very own washer and dryer :-). You can read more on this page.

I pre-washed the towels and the fabric before I appliqued the shapes. Gotta say – I love using them!

Marilyn Fite sent me photos of a table runner that she made from our new book, The Best-Ever Applique Sampler. She used a variety of cotton bandanas. Very cute and an interesting use of fabric!

This is a gift for her very lucky niece.

It's nice to have so much of the house back the way it was 'before'. Rooms look the same, but better. No more popcorns on the ceilings! That is a subtle, happy change. 

The floors make a statement throughout the house. People come in, look down, and they smile. I look down and smile with them! This is not a look that would work in every house – I am grateful that it works here. If it hadn't I would not have been able to change it. 

We are not putting rugs back in either the dining or breakfast room. These rooms look finished without rugs. The orange rug that used to be in the dining room is now in the living room…

The brick hearth in front of the fireplace is gone, and we don't miss it. The tile in front of the fireplace is level with the floor and, because it doesn't stick up, walking through this area is smoother.

One of the things I did myself was to change the door hinges and knobs throughout the house. No more old stained brass. Steve helped me with the cabinet hinges.

This was not a big expense and it was easier than I thought it would be. I am happy every time I turn a knob.

Both bathrooms have new Ceasarstone countertops. My old soap dispensers didn't look good on them so I bought simple white ones. The little green vase I used to have my makeup brushes in no longer worked so I am now using Jeff's (youngest son) pewter baby cup! 

I put a glass vase inside it to hold the brushes better. I tried to give Jeff his cup years ago and he didn't have room for it. I suppose if he ever finds a place for it, I'll give it to him – but right now I'm enjoying it.

In the next photo, notice the low triangular shelf in the corner. That's where I rest my toes when shaving my legs! Rick (the contractor) suggested it.

On the down-side, our oldest cat, Emma, has decided that our shower floor is enough like outside that she wants to pee on it. It must be the rock floor. I suppose it could be worse – at least the shower is easy to clean. But still, Steve and I would like her to quit.

A friend, Jacquie, suggested that we put smells in the bathroom that Emma won't love: mint, eucalyptus, lemon. That's why there are cotton balls at the edge of the shower. It worked at first, but Emma has learned to tolerate the scents. I bought a bottle of Nature's Miracle No More Marking today. I hope it works!

I think that covers the highlights of the remodel project. I hope that some of what I've shared with you comes in handy when you work on your own homes. Now I am going to get back to work, in a house that is clean and tidy and not full of workmen. Oh happy, happy day!