The Great Tile Adventure

I love my new tile. 

I love that is it not blue, even though I think blue is a nice color.

I love that when it is wet I don't feel like putting on a little skirt, sparkley tights, and practicing a Salchow Jump. 

I love that it goes with my Little Condo: sort of rustic, not perfect, and doesn't show dirt!

Looky here. Do you see any dirt? What you think might be dirt is just the tile. Really. I figure I could go for six months without mopping.









This is the front hall before the blue tile was removed. 

It was also before I removed the ledge/shelf thingies for collections of whatever.

And before some of the bead board was removed.

And some was painted. But, I digress.




I don't want to whine, but removing 100 tiles that were stuck good and tight was not easy. 

My daughter was living with me at the time and got just a teensy-weensy bit annoyed at being awakened on Saturday mornings by the chink-chink sound of metal hammer on metal chisel. I said it sounded like progress. Better not repeat what she said. 

I get very excited when I can see progress.  Every time one of those tiles came up I could see the fruits of my labor. Sort of like having a baby. Lots of grunting and a prize at the end of it all!

I am not sure why I turned into some sort of lily-livered chicken when it came down to laying the new tile. I am my own worse critic and I knew if I did the job myself I'd pick it apart for the rest of my life. Some friends needed the extra money, they had done their own tile floor, and so I employed them. I worked on scrapbooks while they sawed, crawled around on hands and knees and went home each day covered in whatever that stuff is that's used to stick tile to the floor. 

And we are still friends. 

 After watching them lay the tile, from my scrapbook table in the living room, I decided that if I ever needed to lay tile again, which I won't, I could do it myself.

Before

After

Kitchen before. (Yea! The big honkin' refrigerator is gone.)

Kitchen after. The Inspector General is giving it a cat scan. (Just pretend the refrigerator is not on the left side of the kitchen. You should also consider it a figment of your imagination that the escape hatch/pass through has been opened up into a doorway.) 

And the paint is NOT pink. It is Holmes Cream. I need some professional photography help from my sons. They know all about white balance. It is obvious that I do not.

By the way, I did have to lay some tile by myself after all. When I moved the refrigerator that you are pretending you don't see from one side of the kitchen to the other I had to put tile where the refrigerator had been. And you know what? It wasn't that bad. 

So, The Great Tile Adventure has come to an end. 

Onward and upward!!