Ooops...

 I just realised that I'd actually written this post but never published it! If you read the previous two posts you'll have guessed that some of the points from this posts have already been crossed off the list but I'll add a summary at the end of this post. Now for the original post:

A while ago I was actually told to update my blog, so it seems like I do have at least one reader.

Work on the house sat on the back burner for a long time, but finally there is some progress to report!

In 2012 I tiled the WC. We chose the same pattern as the bathroom, white 8x8 tile with a black 2x8 border below the top course and 2x8 black base trim. It's essentially modern but at least it has a traditional look about it and it was CHEAP. The floor is black and white checkerboard. Unfortunately, only after opening the boxes we dicovered that the black tiles were considerably smaller than the white ones! The store told us that we had to expect 5% size variations, but that was way beyond 5%. In the end we grudgingly went on installing the tiles using creative spacing. With white grout the end result looks a bit like black tiles swimming in a sea of white but black grout tends to get dirty rather quickly so I suspect we'll use white for the bathroom as well.

We also tiled part of the bathrooms walls, so the plumber could install the toilet and all radiators. So we finally have a working toilet! It still lacks some minor details such as a door though...

We then installed the final hallway floor and refinished it. I posted about the experience here:
Saving a Floor

Once the floor was down the plumber could install the boiler and water heater, so we finally had heat! He also installed the bath tub at that time.

In late 2012 work ground to a screeching halt as we first had a new heating system installed in Vienna and then had horrible water damage after a fire two floors above. Replacing the floor and fixing everything else in my bedroom kept me busy well into the summer of 2013.

We then puttered along with the house but didn't have much time to spare. Yesterday I finally managed to finish tiling the bathroom walls. The last fiddly bits around the door, the window and the bath skirt took forever! I spent two days just tiling the bath skirt and those fiddly bits, then got more than a third of the floor done in one evening. Our carpenter had installed some salvaged trim, but apparently his vision is slightly impaired, at any rate he managed to use three(!) non-matching pieces. Besides, he was - despite of having been told otherwise at least three times - convinced that the door was to swing out into the hallway. Long story short, I had to take all the trim back down.

Things left to do:
- finish tiling: Done
- grout: Done
- caulk: about 3/4 done
- strip and install door trim: done
- have door hung or hang it ourselves: mostly done, still needs a strike plate and lock
- paint: walls are done, door isn't
- install window handle
- have plumber install taps and sink: done, everything in working order
- scrub various paint and mortar splatters and dirt off the wooden ceiling: partially done.

Unfortunately the mortar and old paint bleached the wood so even if we get the ceiling clean there are lighter spots. Not sure what we'll do about that.

We did choose black grout and so far it's holding up surprisingly well.