Follow the Yellow Brick Road

OK, OK, so what we did today did not really include a yellow brick road, but at least our friends and guests now have a place to walk when they try to approach the front door to Gladys.

Once again, the weather cooperated with sunshine and warm weather, so our first task of the day was to mix up a batch of Latte grout to finish the porch.  While the grout was setting up, Rick removed the 2 x 4 support pieces we had to use to keep the bullnose in place.  When we tried to put the bullnose on yesterday, the weight of the tiles caused them to slip.  Some women need a support bra, but Gladys needed support 2 x 4s to help her hold up the new tile.

The bullnose tile, complete with a little support, adorns the front
of the newly tiled porch.

Once the grout was ready to go, Rick spent the next hour massaging it into the joints on the porch.  The picture shows the resulting work.  While the porch still looks a little funny in the front because the bullnose only covers half of the old red tile, the whole thing will come together just fine next fall when we add the paver sidewalk.  Until then, the neighbors will just have to put up with a work in progress.

The newly-grouted tiles look great from the
vantage point of the front door.  For once, Gladys has a
full porch that spans across the double doors.

Rain is predicted for this evening and tomorrow, so later this afternoon we covered the porch with plastic both to protect the grout from washing away in a downpour and to help it dry more slowly which will strengthen it in the long run.  Our next task, then, was to get some more 16" stepping stones to complete the temporary sidewalk.

Earlier in the day, we had returned to a paver-stone warehouse because the first pavers we picked out were not the right color for the new tiles.  We found a deeper brown paver that we both think will look good, and we chose a pattern that we like.  The base, sand, and new pavers eventually will be high enough to cover the rest of the red tile still exposed on the front of the porch, but those pavers will probably have to wait until next year unless a money tree sprouts in our back yard.   Therefore, at this point we have no other option than to choose some stepping stones that eventually will forms a walkway in the side or back yard.

We picked up seven more stepping stones and put them in place just before sunset this evening. (Thank heavens it stays light until about 7:15 p.m.!) I have no idea what they will look like after our rains this evening.  Some may be buried, some may rise from the mud like a Phoenix.  The results of our quickly set stones will be interesting to see.

"Follow the yellow brick..." Oh, yeah, that's
right.  These are just dull, gray stones, but at
least they will keep shoes out of the mud.

Eventually we would like to take the final zag out of
our zig-zag sidewalk to the house.

The last task I completed today was to add pink flamingos to the bottom of our pink bathtub.  When we first bought Gladys, we complained to Lindsay that the pink bathtub really was dangerous and slippery inside.  As a gift, she found and sent us some bathtub flamingos that adhere to the bottom of the tub to give a person a safer footing.  We only used the bathtub for a few showers before we changed over to the master bath shower, so I never put the flamingos in the tub.  Today, however, since we are expecting a guest, I wanted to make the accommodations safe.  Let it never be said that Gladys is dull!  She now has pink flamingos in the bathtub to match the pink flamingo shower curtain I bought as a joke two years ago.  (Every girl likes a touch of pink...)

Pink, non-slip flamingos are the ONLY new thing in the
pink bathroom!

We are both looking forward to welcoming our guest tomorrow, and we are also looking forward to taking a little time off to enjoy our time here in Florida. We think that everything is ready, and we hope that Bonnie really is comfortable as she gets to know Gladys.