Well, I tried to put a title for this post, but alas the system would not let me. Such as it is, let it remain untitled.

I have been a lazy lout when it comes to updating my blog. Part of that is because I've been very, very busy at work lately, with our Church/School renovation. The good news is that our projects have turned out excellently thus far.

The whole school is newly tiled with premium quartz vct. Actually, it's not vct, it just looks like it. It also looks like we have a new school without our nasty old carpet. My great prayer and concern is that our tile stands the test of time and looks just as marvelous many years after I am gone.

We also have a new church floor! I cannot tell you how bad ass this really is. Someone actually let me drop a handsome some of money to renovate an ugly Church and make it beautiful. Take that you bastard iconoclasts! Fr. Carrier, our resident scholarly genius, came into the Church today while the liturgy director and I were marveling at the floor and he started singing a cool new song: "We are actua-lly, starting to look Ca-a-ath-o-lic!"

This was so awesome to hear. Everyone has marveled at our damn floor.

Actually, it's a concrete slab, just a different color, and it's breathtaking. It's decorative concrete, dyed a dark chocolate brown, and looks like marble or aged stone. We ripped up the nasty old carpet, stripped off the glue and dyed the slab, sealed it, and waxed it.

With decorative concrete, you magnify the character already in the floor. We are just lucky that our 30-year-old floors were done well. The trowel marks create a wonderful swirly, artistic feel in the midst of light and dark highlights throughout. In the words of my boss, who is very picky and particular: "It's awesome."

It's also a feather in my cap because this was entirely my idea.

Well, maybe it was the Holy Spirit's, but you know what I mean. It makes me feel great because this is one of my unique contributions to the Church, as an employee and a member of the faithful.

Anyway, we may have the most architecturally displeasing church in the diocese, but we definitely have the most beautiful floor, which distracts you from the rest of the asymetrical form. We might actually be the only church in diocese, heck, the archdiocese or state of Virginia, with decorative concrete. It is my hope that our beautiful new floor will be a model for other churches as they consider the possibilities of their renovation.

It is also my hope that this floor will inspire architects and designers to put decorative concrete on their short list for good design at an affordable price.

Well, I didn't realize I was going to go on about this when I started to write. If you are ever in Dale City, check out our kick ass floors. I will try to post some pics soon.

Nick-dog.