Rick, our tile setter, had his crew at our place bright and early on Saturday morning. There wasn’t much that we were able to help with, and those guys were moving so fast that there was no place we could work without being in their way. We hung around for a while and took some pictures before we went out to run errands for a few hours. (It felt *weird* not working on the house!) Here are a few pictures from [tile installation day #1 photoset][tile day 1] on Flickr:
[tile day 1]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicchicken/sets/72157603407916488/
There were a couple of problems with the cabinets, one of which I’ll have to fix: The peninsula outlets were centered on the backsplash *frame*, so the bottom of the outlet box barely cleared the tile ([picture](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicchicken/2097121874/in/set-72157603407916488/)) once the mortar bed and tile were laid down.
At the end of day #1, the shower/bath surround is all tiled, including the quarter-round trim. The granite countertops are all laid, although the bar top has yet to be done. The backsplash over the baking center is tiled, except for the quarter-round trim (which won’t arrive until mid-week). The Hardiebacker has been “glued” to the floor in the bathroom, laundry/utility room, hallway, and part of the nook and entry.
Rick and his guys will be back tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see how far they can get, since they don’t have to spend a lot of time setting up tomorrow.