Goodness, where does the time go? With our Easter deadline (to finish the main work on the house) only a couple of weeks away, I’m pressing on with the tiling. It’s pleasing seeing it come together, but slow.
In contrast to the modern bathroom upstairs, the tiles in the cantina floor are a traditional cotto and much more rustic looking. Kinda cute. They’re also easier to lay. This is because they need, by virtue of their rough edges, a wide fuga or gap between tiles. Everywhere else, I’ve gone for a sleek modern effect of edge to edge tiles. But tiles are never perfectly the same, so it takes a lot more work to get them right if you do this.
Just to make sure I don’t make my job too easy, though, I decided to lay them in a herringbone pattern, as in the photo. This means lots of cutting! Luckily, my local ferramenta or ironmongery advised me to buy a costly diamond blade (€42!), which does make the job quicker.
Meanwhile, the falegname (carpenter) finally came through with our front doors – just as we were desperate for them! We were poised to go away for a week (as the falegname had been advised well in advance) when he turned up, allowing us to close the house securely for the first time since we got here. They still need a few trimmings, but aren’t they gorgeous? And the new bedroom in the ex-cantina is so much brighter now that the door has a window in it. Happy proprietaria.
