hey bill - i forgot to thank you for your kind words from last week :) thanks i think we figured this out... when i got home & started trying to figure it out with the things in front of me, i remembered that we can also mount the "bench" on top of the tile, which is what john is going to try. he's confident that he can get the tile square, and then he will drill the holes through the tile & kerdi once they are set. i am nervous about him cutting through the tile, since it would be hard to get a broken tile off the kerdi safely, but he says he is confident he can do it and it would be extremely bad luck for a tile to break. i have to trust him and our luck :) here is a quick pic of my tiling job on the tub surround... not perfect, but i'm pretty pleased, and john said he can make it look fine with grout. i left the bullnose off the edges so i can tile once he's done with his drywall perfecting, and i decided at the last minute to put a blue tile on the small wall, after my thinset had been used up, so i just popped one of the white tiles off & that's the hole you see. i'm just so happy to see tile finally - it's all been in boxes & in my head :) he's finally going "Oh! now i see what you meant by scattering the glass tiles around... now i see how the blue paint will highlight those..." I've seen it all along, but in my head! glad it's turning out like it is in my head. lisa

as promised, here's my kerdi update. I had to raise my drain pipe in the floor for my drain installation. While it seems simple enough from watching the videos out there, when the rubber hits the road it's tricky. Also, this is the most important part of your schluter shower. It has to be done right. Working against you are challenges in accurately dry fitting ABS, and challenges in making accurate measurements, especially given the drain assy needs to be flush with top of the tray with enough overlap between the drain pipe and the drain for a good glue connection. You basically have 1/2 an inch to work with if your drain is in the floor like mine. Not much room for error for a novice. So for my installation, I had to raise the pipe up about a half. To do that I had to cut a hunk out of my drain and use an ABS coupling. Glad I had bought the expensive dremel with all the wondrous attachments. Actually worked great to cut the drain and burnish the edges. One thing I got from one of the schluter videos is using a 4 inch (maybe 5?) sleeve around the drain pipe, they call it a coupler. This keeps the concrete away from your drain and is great if you have to stick a dremel in your drain to reduce it. A good video, like all of them out there, but the measuring issues are covered very quickly. My one day effort is between 1:57 and 2:01. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swj264jRu1E

spacific, I want to thank you for posting your recipe. It is most excellent. I liked your technique with the butter, the amount of butter, the lemon zest and the crumb on the caklet. Good one! I did glean, from the linked blog, filling the pan with a bit more delicacy and tried to keep the batter whipped up by treating it gently. I may try to go to the lengths of the blog, but some of it seems superflous. Thanks for the posting. Lori, I'm going to bake yours too as coconut (as well as the orange cardamom combo recipe you sent me) is something I really love. Thank you for your post too. Here's what spacific's recipe turned out like Compared to what I was making. I can get the bubble, but mine is more sponge than I want it. Not the right balance, but I'm giving this one up to use Ann's. Hers won out against what I was using. My bubbly cakelet (that isn't as light and tasty as spacific's)

I wouldn't say the roller is a poor choice,I can only say that I've been able to achieve far better results with brushes. Fast? Yes,alot more paint can be laid down with roller in the same amount of time but in my experience, quality has always been lacking. Please understand that I have been for years and still strive to improve with every project. If you are serious about the best results possible,I have an exercise that will help. Enter next stage as you feel each has been mastered. Stage 1. Aquire a light with defelector/shade that is easily adjustable for height and angle. Mine is a reading lamp with heavy floor base,telescopic pole, fexiable neck and small conicial shade. No need for extreamly bright bulb but as room/work area is better lite,the bulb must be brighter. Lay scrap boards on saw horses/bench at comfortable working heighth then adjust light so it reflect's off board you are working on. Choose some spare paint and a crap brush. I recommend water clean up paint for ease of clean up but the glossier when dry the better for showing mistakes. As you apply paint,spread thin as possible while maintaining even gloss of fresh paint. DO NOT GO BACK AS PAINT DRYS TO TRY AND EVEN OUT GLOSS. Play around with thinning to find consistency that work's best for you,your board,your paint and brush. Spots where paint is to thin or missing when dry are called "holidays". Don't fret about hollidays at this stage because uneven absorbton of paint due to inconsistancies in board will look the same as too little paint. If necessary,we will handle that with primer later on when doing projects. At this stage,we will see a difference with a second coat. As you practice,try and pick up the speed with which you move along. It's very important to move fast in order to maintain (wet edge as mentioned by Mac earlier). Maintaining wet edge go's hand in hand with what I said above IN CAPS about not messing with partly dry areas. Stage 2. Repeat with oil base paint,oil base clear or clear poly. Stage 3. Use a clean quality brush and clean clear finish while using all suggestions we have made about keeping dust out of finish. Stage 4. Critique each project as you do them to see how you can improve. I would appreciate hearing wherter you learned any thing form stage 1.