Is Five Years Too Long for a Project?

Five years ago I started this project: re-cladding my garage with cement board and stucco paint and creating a mosaic on the yard-side of the garage. Here we are, at the end of summer in 2016 and I have finally completed this project.

When I picked the project up a few weeks ago, the wood was quite worn and needed re-working. Random tile, where I hadn't grouted, had come loose and was falling off.

I finished the tile work and re-painted the trim and things were ready for grouting this weekend.

The door I put on several years ago was looking pretty shabby as well. Luckily, I have a new one, salvaged from my neighbor's house. They were putting a new Home Depot special on their place so their gain is my gain.

I removed the hardware and cut it to fit. I added a few coats of paint and it was ready to go.

Yesterday was grouting day. I am very happy with how it all looks. Getting to door on was a little tough but it also came out great.

It will be nice to finally enjoy the back yard and patio without having this project looming over me.

I should have done this years ago: grouting the mosaic

It has been three years since I started my mosaic project on the garage. The first time I posted on it was August 6, 2011. It is embarrassing that it has taken this long to start on the grouting of the tile. I finished one side of tile work a couple years ago and it has sat, without grout. This year several tiles started falling off so I figured it was about time I get off my butt and finish this thing. 

Mixing  and applying the grout per the manufacturers instructions was simple enough. This is the first time I've grouted anything and it was an easy project. Easy is a relative term though. It still took time and I still needed to pay careful attention to what I was doing to make sure all of the joints were properly filled. After filling, you wipe it down with a wet sponge, ring it out, wipe again, repeat and repeat and repeat... until it is clean. Paying attention to the removal of the excess grout was also important. It was tedious but somewhat therapeutic.   

The result is great. The detail in the tile seems to pop a bit now and the shapes and design seem more refined. After I finished the damp wipe-down, I went over the entire thing with a dry rag to remove any excess dust.  

This has given me renewed interest in finishing this project. Sadly, the garden-side of the garage doesn't look half as good as the pergola side of the garage. It faces south and suffers from a lot of pealing paint. I also didn't take much care in adhering all of the trip boards to the substrate. I ended up spending a day screwing the boards back in securely and sanding all of the areas where paint came off. I hope to get another coat of paint on it today and start to complete the rest of the mosaic work.  

A Stopping Point?

I think I hit a stopping point on the garage today.  I rounded the corner and the tile mosaic now goes from the door jamb completely around one side.  I think that I will grout this can consider it done for the season.  If I get some nice weather, I will do more but as it stands now, I am not counting on it.  When I do the grouting, I'll give a complete technical description of everything I did, just in case there are other insane people out there that want to try a similar project.

I changed the detail at the corner.  If you look at previous posts, I had wood trim at the corner.  I think it looks nicer with the tile wrapping around though.  I really like the look of things and am not happy that I may end up leaving the rest of the project until next spring.

It is interesting to compare what the garage looked like after my first improvement project several years ago and what it looks like today.    



Rounding the Corner

Yesterday I finished the first side of the garage.  Special thanks to my friend Dave for helping me out with this.  It is amazing what another set of hands and and some decent beer can help you accomplish.  This side of the garage is pretty much the only side that matters because it faces the patio but I hope to begin attacking side two today and maybe start some grouting.  I also may change my corner detail so that the tile turns the corner instead of having the yellow trim pieces there.  Hope to have another update tomorrow.

Too tired to write...

...so I am just going to post a few pics of what I've been up to.  I am starting to think that I am going to be at this until Christmas.

A Productive Weekend

I did a little more work on the mosaic this weekend but more importantly I finally got around to cleaning out the garden and installing the hardi-backer on the south side of the garage.  The project went a little quicker than the last side I did because the side is smaller and I am starting to get the hang of the work.

Instead of painting all the wood in place, as I did last time, I opted for painting it and then hanging it up.  This worked out well but I have a little touching up to do on the "stucco" paint as I didn't cover all of the areas properly. 

The project is starting to shape up and I even rounded the corner at the back of the garage.  I am well over half done with the cladding.  The next spectacular Sunday, I should be able to finish that part of the job.  As for the mosaic...

This would have made a great time-lapse film

I always think of these things too late.  I am progressing about three feet a week on this thing so I am realistically assuming I will complete it the first week in October.     

By the way, check out the awesome Mackintosh-inspired Arts & Crafts tile that Bangor Bungalow sent me (below).  I didn't have the heart to break it up in the mosaic because it was so cool.  Because she is completely taken with it, I let my daughter choose the perfect spot for it and I will work the other tile around it.  I have a few sculptural pieces I want to incorporate as well.  Those will be a little trickier. 

After a few hours of tiling and a nice meal, we spent the cool night under the pergola.  It really is one of the nicest things about the Tiny Bungalow. 

More Progress

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you take the day off of work and have nothing else to do.  I didn't make a lot more progress on the mosaic but I did get one side of the garage painted.  I am still fussing over a piece of "chocolate cherry" trim that I intended on putting inside each yellow-trimmed panel and am waiting to see how the rest turns out before I proceed with it. 

The look is pretty much what I anticipated.  I painted the Hardi-backer with Thorocoat, a textured coating that I had hoped would make the hard-backer look like stucco.  If you look really close, you can see some of the "patter" from the Hardi-backer telegraph through but I don't think I am going to worry about it all that much. 

I got the Thorocoat from Jay over at Humphrey House.  I like the color and think it looks good.  I may even use the rest on my front columns, once I get around to fixing them up.

In other garden news, the pergola looks great with all of the hops on it.  They really went crazy this year and it is getting time to harvest them.  I hope to give them to friends that will use them in some homebrew. 

Everything has survived the storms and heat we have had over the past few weeks.  It may be the best the garden has ever looked at this time of year.  I am sort of regretting not putting in a vegetable garden.



Slow going

If we keep getting rain every weekend, I don't think I'll ever be done with this project.  The next few days are supposed to remain clear.  There's still a lot more tiling, then painting, and then grouting to do.  I typically am not very productive during the week but I think I'll need to be this week... ...weather permiting.