This week we took delivery of all the travertine floor tiles. And boy do we have a ton of tile!
The interior tile is a creamy white. The exterior tile matches it, but has a rougher texture so that it won't be slippery if wet. You can just see the difference between the two. The second tile from the right (left picture) is the interior one. All the travertine feels really good on your feet!
Also arriving this week, the bamboo interior doors. These came all the way from California. The wood came from China. They are 'fosilized' which means that the color is a rich medley of browns. The bamboo is run in a horizontal pattern. This is the same wood that is up on the ceilings. And also this wood will make up all our cabinetry. Cool!
More details. They are beginning to face the stairs that lead up to the house with stone. As you can see this is the same stone that was used to build the planters. Most of this material comes from our site. But they did bring in some additional colors to add to the mix. The stone mason is definitely a master craftsman. All of these pieces are fit by hand with a hammer and chisel. It's really time consuming. Yes, it's expensive! But worth it, right?
Hey look! The driveway is starting to creep down towards the road. There will be a retaining wall along the downhill side, notice the rebar waiting for wall forms. Off in the distance you can see our closest neighbor. All that 'white' above their house is the retaining wall that holds their driveway. Retaining walls are just about everywhere on this island. Otherwise everything would end up in the sea. We've decided to stucco our walls with a dark color. That way they will disappear into the foliage. Landscaping will help to hide the walls as well.
The last of our windows came this week. So pretty soon the house will be closed in and the roof will be finished. Just in time for hurricane season! We've had one tropical front pass through, but nothing scary. We have finished purchasing all we need to finish the house. Things are still arriving from Florida in a steady stream. Now we wait and watch as all this stuff gets assembled. Details, details. It's a good thing there are two of us to keep track of everything.
Hey, how about some water in that pool? It's hot down here!
