A little tiling how-to

First of all - I love all of the comments! I love you for commenting! YAYHOORAY for comments! xxoo

Can't say I'm an expert at this - but here's how we put together the best backsplash in the world (in my humble opinion).

First!

Pick out your tile...

(duh...)

As I said yesterday, we decided to go with Arctic Ice 1" x 2" glass tiles from Home Depot for about $9/sq ft.

We had originally wanted large white subway tiles that were 3" x 6" but then I fell in love with the glass tiles and also thought our all white kitchen could use some color. But when I researched 3" x 6" glass subway tile....eeeesh....expensive! The cheapest I could find in stores and online was $15/sq ft. That would have been around $500! Just for the backsplash!! Not happening. The smaller glass tiles were still not cheap, but much better than $500.

When we purchased our tile, we also picked up some white glass tile mortar, a new blade for the wet saw, a 3/16" x 1/4" V-notch trowel (recommended for this size/type of tile), a grout float, and some bright white non-sanded grout. Non-sanded grout is best for small grout lines and also, we were told by a Home Depot employee that sanded grout can scratch the surface of glass tile.

I'm sure you can use the premixed stuff but this specifically said Glass Tile Thin-set Mortar so we picked up two boxes.

I've also seen on lots of home improvement shows that you should use white grout for glass tile - or at least a color that you won't mind seeing through the tile. Our tile came with a white back though...so maybe it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Better safe than sorry I suppose.

We had a pretty small amount of grout and mortar so we mixed by hand instead of buying a mixing paddle. I have a 99 cent whisk from Ikea for such projects.

Once mixed, you have to let the mortar rest for 10 minutes so we measured where we needed to make the first cuts for a snug fit in the corners and around all of the light switches. Luckily my parents own a wet saw so we were able to take our time and not worry about returning it to a tool rental place.

Momz cuttin' some tile.

Using a wet saw is a messy job. Mom knew this from previous tile jobs and made us a lobster bib of sorts out of a small trash bag. When the saw slows down it spits water all over you. Actually it probably wouldn't if you kept the guard down like you're supposed to....aaaaaanyway..... Definitely use the wet saw outside or in a place where the floor can get wet.

Not too shabby!

Slather on mortar with the flat side of the trowel, then comb it with the notched edge to create some grooves. Then slap your tile on!

Hmmm... notice who's tiling and who's taking pictures? I helped I swear.

First two sheets up.

I'm not sure if spacers would have fit in between each tile because of the mesh attached to the back, but we added some spacers along the bottom to keep it up from the countertop. Once the mat was up, we wiggled and squished it into the mortar and then made sure all of the tiles were evenly spaced. Nothing like eyeballing it! My favorite type of measuring.

We worked our way around the kitchen covering about one sheet's worth of wall with mortar at a time so that it wouldn't dry while we were cutting the next piece. When we were done it looked like this (a repeat from yesterday's post).

The next day, we mixed up some bright white grout and let it sit for ten minutes (same process as the mortar).

And used the grout float to spread it all over the walls. 

At first I was nervous that the grout lines would be way too big but Momz assured me once we wiped the tiles down the grout lines would shrink.

Before wiping...

After wiping (20 minutes later) and then waiting two hours for the grout to set, we polished off the remaining film with some cheesecloth.

I could not have imagined it turning out this well. I absolutely love it!

Is this my kitchen??

Wowzers. I can't believe there's an actual kitchen where the hole used to be. All we have are finishing touches and we're done!!! DONE-ZO!

Exciting new kitchen developments

So much to blog about and so little time to blog!

My mother and I have been working on something fantastic in the kitchen. It's not finished yet, but here's the new backsplash so far.

Ooooh!

Aaaaah!

Arctic Ice 1" x 2" glass tile.

Still needs grout but it already looks so good! I love the sea foam color. I'm also glad that we ended up going with some color in the kitchen instead of white countertops with white subway tile.

Unfortunately I had to remove the trim from the window but oh well. It's easily nailed back on. The kitchen has so many layers....onion-like. Can't put this on till you add that, can't paint that till this is installed, etc, etc. Thank goodness we're putting the icing on the cake this week!

As always I wish I had some daytime pics to show you but unfortunately I'm in a gray cube during prime photo taking time. I'll take some good ones this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Give thanks, enjoy some family time and stuff your face.

Marble's here!

Just a quick post today. We did a ton of work this weekend and I'm too pooped to post but I had to share some marble pics.

Behold!

And our new faucet.

Yay!

Now that things are gettin' pretty I wish I took better pictures! I'll have to work on that.

Curtains update

O...

M........

G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE!!!!!

Perfect length!!! No hemming needed!!!

I was also thrilled to rip up all the protective paper that's been covering the floors since...July??? UGH! It's finally looking like a living room! These curtains have transformed my life the entire room. It's things like this that make me glad I trusted my instinct that our fixer could really be turned into something nice. (Can you tell I'm extremely happy about my curtains??? I may have ran a few squealing laps around the house after I hung the first panel...They're lined, they're weighted, they're amazingawesomeness.)

The bedroom curtains? Not so much.

Waaa....

Waaaaaaaaa........

Yeah......... I know.

**********sigh***********

They're not terrible. But they're not great. I suppose that's the difference between $100 panels from Crate & Barrel and $10 panels from Target? I should have realized they weren't long enough....before I washed them. Now it's too late and I can't return them. Oh well. This may turn into an experiment in color block curtains so I can add the extra length. 

Since I have to live with them for now, which is better. 

Hung by the tabs?

Or scrunched up?

Triminey-trim-trim-trim-truh-roo

Phrases heard most often in our house:

"Well, we're just going to cover that with trim anyway."

"I don't know, we'll just put a piece of trim over it."

"Well that's what trim's for right?"

Trim is the answer for pretty much everything. And last night's project was no exception.

Can't have a pretty new window with nothing around it!

I had no idea how to go about finishing this window. So I googled "Install window trim" and found this vague video:

Once I saw the general idea I was off to Home Depot. Ed was originally planning on drywalling around the window but since it will be the window over the sink, I know that we will end up setting things on the sill. Things like dish soap or little potted plants that might be wet. Moisture and drywall do not mix. A wood sill was a must so I figured we would just go with wood all the way around. Nailing trim around the edge also sounded WAY better than plastering some more drywall corners. I've had about enough of that!

So I built a box and nailed it in. No sweat! Haha yeah right, I messed up the cuts on the first batch of wood and had to go back to Home Depot. You know...same ol' same ol'...

But here's how it looked once nailed in.

Ooh-la-la!

So much better!

One problem we needed to solve was covering the gap between the trim and the window. The trim has to be flush with the drywall and for whatever reason, our window sill is not even. As in, on one side the trim was flush with the drywall and the window, but on the other end there was a big gap.

Answer? More trim of course!

I chose a small trim for the outside and inside of the window. Installed like so.

Complete box with inner trim. 

Then all I had to do was install the outer trim and we'd have a complete, finished window. 

But then....

I ran out of trim. 

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! So close!

Three trips to Home Depot was not happening, so the final photo will have to wait. Although I did get one strip done on the window sill.

Not bad for a Tuesday.

A master mini makeover

Before...

(as in way, WAY, before....this is the master bedroom we saw when we were house hunting)

Choosing paint. Which we discussed here.

Painting the trim and the windows.

Installing the ceiling fan.

And after this weekend?

Better!

The bamboo shades look great and it's nice to finally have something on the windows. They were pretty hard to install though. We have metal window frames and finding out how to drill into them took some time. And I may have broken two drill bits in the process.... but once I discovered it was simply dull drill bits and went and bought a new one, it went a lot faster.

Since I decided to not go with the custom shades there is a little space on either side but at less than one tenth the price of custom, it's a space I can deal with!

The mini makeover picture was supposed to include some curtains too. But there was an issue with the curtain rods I bought. Once extended to the right length....there was major saggage.

 That's not gonna work!

After looking at the saggy rod for a while I also decided that it should be hung higher and slightly off center of the window. Because the bed and nightstands are squeezed into the space between the wall and the window, there isn't room for two panels on that side. I'm thinking one panel on each window, hung on opposite sides.

Then throw some other stuff in the room and voila!

Peanut approves.

Unfortunately we need to incorporate Peanut's crate into the room. Lady (one of her many nicknames) can't be banished to another room of the house! Out of the question! Her crate currently lives in the closet (our clothes are in another closet downstairs till the reno dust settles). 

....looks like someone's put on a few lbs....