07 / Journal — Sheet F

Field notes, margin sketches, and the odd opinion.

Short pieces from the job site and the shop. Details we ended up using, mistakes we won’t repeat, and the odd specification worth writing down.

Green tile shower with marble floor
F.01 · Featured

Why we dry-lay every tile floor before thinset.

A dry-lay is the sketch before the drawing. You set the pattern on the floor with spacers, walk the room, look at it with the lights on and the lights off — and then you change it. Cuts that would have ended up under the vanity move to the center. Seams land on the grout line, not the threshold. The slab you’re spending five hundred dollars a square on earns its five hundred dollars.

Read the full note
F.02

Recent entries.

Why we dry-lay every tile floor before thinset.

A dry-lay is the sketch before the drawing — and it’s the cheapest design decision on a bathroom remodel.

Vaulted ceilings: the ridge beam does the work.

Opening a ceiling looks simple until you’re standing under it. A short note on ridge beams, collar ties, and when engineering is worth the fee.

Mortar color, matched by eye.

Mortar is seventy percent of a stone wall’s look and nobody talks about it. We tint ours on site and sample it in three spots before we commit.

LVP versus engineered hardwood — the honest comparison.

They both have a place. Here’s how we pick, by room and by client, without the marketing talk from either side.

Scribing built-ins to an old plaster wall.

New cabinetry never meets old plaster cleanly. A short photo essay on how we close the gap without caulk.

Bookmatching a verde slab across twin vanities.

One slab, two basins, one seam. How we lay out the cut so the vein runs like it was drawn that way on purpose.