(Wo)man vs Machine

With the cables all pulled through and connected, and mostly tested (the exception is the TV coax which still needs some holes to be drilled to route up to the loft), attention turned back to the hearth.

As usual with us, when there is an option to do things the easy way, and another to do them the hard way, we will always take the latter course. This is doubly true when it comes to the hearth tiles.

Firstly, instead of a box of "normal" sized ceramic tiles - the sort you can lay at a rate of a square metre in 20 minutes, we chose 4 pieces of natural slate, each one of which needs to be cut to fit.

Secondly, to cut the tiles, instead of the disk cutter that most builders would use, we opted for the much slower, but in our opinion, less mistake prone, option of using a hand tile saw.

Here are the slates layed out ready (with a helper who later pee'd in the corner !) :

(by the way - those of you who ever visited our house in Portsmoth may find the colour of the carpet familiar !)

And here is Jan embarking on the first cut on Monday afternoon.

Three days and one carborundum coated saw blade later, all cuts are done and the pieces of slate are ready to lay.

I have been on many holidays to North Wales and the Lake District, and visited most of the slate mines and caverns. I know how slate is usually cut and shaped using cleaving tools, guillotines and disk cutters, all of which are much quicker than the technique we have chosen. Still, it is done now, and we are pleased with the finish. Just need to fix them down, grout and seal them now....

By the way, part of the reason for not using a disk cutter, was that I don't have one. My colleague Colin kindly offered to lend me his with water-bath and everything, an offer of which I am most grateful - just too chicken to take him up on it ! Thanks Colin !