Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
I am rather impressed with myself. A few weeks ago, I was scratching my chin, wondering what to do with this basement. Now, I am standing on brand new tile throughout the entire thing. I think I might be amazing.
So, after five short days, the tile guys completed the job and left. I thought it would take two…and it may have if I was doing it. I tend to work long hours. These guys liked to work for a few hours a day. I will give them credit for doing a really good installation job though. Installing tile is a little weird. The installer is kind of bound by drying time, so they can only do so much.
Here are some photos of the finished job…
The reason I say they did a good installation is because I watched him place each tile very carefully. He didn’t just slap them down. He put a little extra thin-set on the corners and after the tile was down, he made sure it was solid. I am assuming some tile installers might not do that.
So now, all I need to do is seal the grout, paint the base moulding and put it back on the walls. Then, we are going to bring one couch down there and set up the TV and all the electronics.
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Saturday, June 28th, 2008
Today, the tile installers finished laying the full pieces of tile. Now, they have to come back on Monday to make all the cuts for all the edge pieces. I am going down tonight to count all the edge pieces we’ll need, just to make sure we have enough tile.
On Tuesday, they will come back again to do the grout. Well, that’s what I hope will happen anyway. I thought this job would be done in two days, but as time goes on, I am realizing that it is more work than I thought. 450 square feet is a lot of area to cover.
Here are some photos of today’s tile installation.
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Friday, December 21st, 2007
Well, the floor is done. Yesterday, the tile guy came back and did the grout. That went fairly quickly. He took about a half hour to finish up.
The grout is ivory color, but went on kind of dark. My sister and I were talking about grout the other day. She did her kitchen tile by herself, which is gutsy. She was saying how you can’t have grout darker than the tile, because when you first look at the floor, your eye will see a big grid and not the tile. That gave me a little concern when I saw the grout go on darker than ivory. Then, the grout started drying and I remembered that the grout gets lighter as it dries.
So there it is.
Today, I have a bunch of stuff to do. I have to seal the grout, cut the threshold mouldings, stain them, clear coat them and move an outlet. There is one that will be buried by a cabinet. I am going to move that up so we can use it. After that stuff is done, I have some plumbing work to do. Paul might need to help me with that.
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Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
This place stinks.
I mean, it really does. I woke up this morning with a plan. My plan was that I was going to make a plan…no, I mean it. I am talking about the kitchen. I’m sorry, but whenever I think about sanding and spackling walls, I get very demotivated. It’s helpful to think of projects in small chunks. My plan is to tackle a bit of the kitchen each day…one wall at a time.
Well, today I painted the ceiling. It’s not exactly a wall, but it did need to get done. There wasn’t really anything wrong with the old ceiling color, besides the fact that there was something along the lines of spaghetti sauce spots on it. Laura and I kept looking at a rather large one for about two years, until I got the courage to wipe it off. Who knows how these things happen. Anyway, now it’s a nice bright white.
The other thing that was wrong with the kitchen ceiling was its yellowish tint. I think someone who lived here was a heavy smoker. They had to be…all the walls were yellow. At one point, I’m sure the white ceilings were whiter, but the tar in the cigarette smoke took care of that. I believe the people who lived here had kids too. Good luck with that. The kitchen is the last room that needs to have the yellow covered up. It felt great to roll a new shade of white over the yellow white.
Also, today I bleached the walls of the shower/bathtub. I needed to really clean the grout so I could seal it. If you have ever used straight bleach to clean with, you can understand what I am talking about. Those noxious fumes can bring you down. I tried to hold my breath, but had to keep running in and out of the bathroom so I wouldn’t faint. That’s all Laura needs to come home to.
That’s why this place stinks. There is a wonderful mix of drying paint and bleach floating through the air.
I took this picture of Simon the other night. He was sleeping with his head up. Sometimes he does that, so I thought it would be interesting for my readers to see, especially if they don’t have a cat capable of doing something like this. He is for rent. Call me.
In other news, last night was a windy sonofabitch. I hate the wind. I kept getting up to see if the recycling cans on the porch blew off. If they did, I would be spending the day cleaning up paper. Good thing they didn’t.
The picture above is the front yard with a little bit of snow on it. It actually was snowing, but the camera didn’t pick that up. You will have to use your imagination.
I miss you.
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Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
Well, that was pretty quick. The tile guy came at about 9AM and left around 11:30AM.
I am pretty happy that there were no hiccups. When he first showed up, I went outside to greet him. I told him that I was going to be the best little helper he ever had. Then, I came inside and did some work. He hardly even saw me. Whoops.
So, here are some photos…
This is the empty bathroom. I made a little mess while taking the toilet off this morning. Also, the wood in the corner was a little wet from the shower, but still strong. He stomped on it just to make sure.
He put a layer of thin set down and then put a cement-type board on top of that.
This is all the cement board down.
This is the cement board fastened to the floor.
Ok, here we go with the tile.
…and it’s done. Well, tomorrow morning he is coming back to do the tile grout. I ordered a brown grout to match the tile. From the pictures above, it doesn’t look like the tile matches the walls much, but they do match the bathroom. The wall tiles have more of a shine to them, but it’s ok. The floor tiles match the upper portion of the walls.
People have told me how easy it is to tile and that I could do it myself. After watching him install this tile, I am going to have him do the kitchen as well. I don’t feel like it’s worth it for me to buy the tools and find the time to learn how to tile, especially when it’s a once in a blue moon kind of thing. I am happy he did it.
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