Today we worked on the initial phase of the flooring installation, that being cleaning the tiles and putting a thin coat of the floor sealer on them. This will protect them from fingerprints, and keep the thinset cement which glues to them to the floor from sticking to them. I also got a chance to see how many were cracked or chipped. Fortunately, having finished with half of the flooring boxes, (18 of 34), I have only found three tiles which are chipped on the corner, and only one tile was actually broken.
![floor1](http://mtnmacaw.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/floor1.jpg)
I really like the contrast between the smooth and shiny flooring, and the natural color of the pine boards.
![floor2](http://mtnmacaw.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/floor2.jpg)
A couple of hours break in rainy weather allowed us to set up saw horses and a piece of plywood for a table, in the garage, for our work surface.
The natural stone travertine is going to be tricky to install, as it seems a little more fragile a material than I thought it would be.
It’s neat, Dan reminded me today that the first house he built for us in Alaska had tongue & grove pine boards, like this room will have. We are coming full circle. I loved that little house, and no doubt we are going to really enjoy this sun room for many years to come.