This Is One Bizarre #SNF13 Post! No Airplanes??
Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 09:33PM 
Close-up of my detail work with 12" x 24" porcelain tile with glass/stone deco inlay
click any pic to enlarge
No airplanes? Well, no airplane pictures in this post... but there are plenty of them down in Lakeland Florida as Sun 'n Fun 2013 has been underway since Tuesday April 9th. I had planned to either be on the way by now or maybe even already on-site to bring you some AirPigz coverage of the Spring Break for Pilots, but my day-job as a self-employed ceramic tile installer has gotten in the way. I'm currently on week #6 of a huge installation job that's 45 minutes away from my home that includes tile on several walls, above a curvy drywall soffit, on several floors, and even includes an extra large shower with an 11 foot ceiling and lots of cool details! It's a rather upscale job that has consumed my life lately and will continue to do so for another couple weeks.
All of the deco bays were cut by me, they are not pre cut!
So, while many of my avgeek friends are gathered in the campground and are enjoying sunshine and airplanes at SNF13, I'm crawling around on the floor and up and down a ladder. I'm happy to have the work tho, no doubt about it. I've actually had a significant increase in my tile installing work in the last 18 months which has definitely made keeping things fresh on AirPigz quite a challenge, but I've been doing pretty well all things considered. However, this big job that's kinda far from home anyway has worn me down quite a bit and made it really tough these last few weeks. I'm at least hopeful that the increase in income from all this work will finally get me current once again as I plan to trade some cash for a flight review in a J-3 Cub up in Hartford Wisconsin before long. WooHoo! #LoveToFly
13" x 19" floor tiles with some artsy curves cut in... it's harder to do than it looks!
I've included some pix of my tile work from the last few days. This is only a small part of what I've been working on, but I thought some of you might find it interesting to see both what I do and the level of quality that I strive to achieve. I'm very pleased with the attention to detail that these samples show. I work alone, so everything you see in the tile work (not the stonework) is done by me... and the level of quality that I'm able to crank out these days is the greatest evidence I have that I should be building a flying machine! And yes, it's true that I still have a modified Volksplane (Project VP) out in the garage, but I have had neither the time nor the money to move that project forward. Sigh. It looks like one more year of slowly digging out from the financial devastation of 2008 and I will finally have myself in a position to be a real airplane builder once again.
Close-up of the tight tolerance between the edge metal and tile in the curve - nice!
I sure hope everyone who was able to make the trip to SNF13 has a great time and I'll set my thoughts on visiting with you all at OSH13 : )
Reader Comments (7)
What craftsmanship!!!! Beautiful job
You professionals make it look real easy....
Brilliant work...
Rick Brown
Rick and Don- thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it : )
That's top notch!
Awesome work! Talent extraordinaire! Happy you've got work, Martt. You deserve that J-3 time. Thanks for all your work here at AirPigz!
Ditto what Rick, Don and Gary said; real nice, Martt.
Gary and Tom- Thank you as well!
Looks good, Martt. Hope you got to listen to SuninFun Radio while you were working. I wasn't down there either. Had to listen too.
~J~