Chilean Apartment: Finishing Touches

New Chilean Apartment: Finishing Touches

Heading into the final lap of finishing touches for the apartment, we needed to select the floor coverings. This is the warehouse area of a major marble and granite distributor in Santiago where we went to select marble for the study and passageways to the bedroom areas.

With the job in progress, you can see some details of the transition from the existing marble in the entrance foyer. A narrow strip of greenish black marble was the continuity from old to new. You might also spot the string and chalkline that were used to align the marble tiles in the study.

The workers did their cutting on the terrace with the glass wall to the apartment closed and the terrace windows opened. This helped to keep only some of the dust from the rest of the apartment.

Several days later, we have a beautiful new floor!

Meanwhile other workers began preparing for the wood floors in the living and dining rooms.

The surface under the floor needed to be leveled before the installation of the wood. After the new surface was dry, the wood was delivered to adjust for 2 days to its new home. The actual installation was quicker than the preparation.

In between projects we did some cleaning. We had hired the wood prep people to install wood over the sides and bottom mirrors of the built-in unit in the living room. Gustavo spent many hours supervising many of the jobs.

The carpeting could be installed in the bedrooms after the marble flooring was completed. The carpets really make the rooms look finished!

Mónica and Gustavo hung curtains to protect the wooden floor in the living room from the sun...

...and for the final touch, wooden curtains were installed in the terraza.

Next: Moving Day

With the job in progress, you can see some details of the transition from the existing marble in the entrance foyer. A narrow strip of greenish black marble was the continuity from old to new. You might also spot the string and chalkline that were used to align the marble tiles in the study.


The workers did their cutting on the terrace with the glass wall to the apartment closed and the terrace windows opened. This helped to keep only some of the dust from the rest of the apartment.

Meanwhile other workers began preparing for the wood floors in the living and dining rooms.

The surface under the floor needed to be leveled before the installation of the wood. After the new surface was dry, the wood was delivered to adjust for 2 days to its new home. The actual installation was quicker than the preparation.

In between projects we did some cleaning. We had hired the wood prep people to install wood over the sides and bottom mirrors of the built-in unit in the living room. Gustavo spent many hours supervising many of the jobs.

Mónica and Gustavo hung curtains to protect the wooden floor in the living room from the sun... ...and for the final touch, wooden curtains were installed in the terraza.