Backsplash/Tile wall

We've been consistently working on getting this kitchen remodel into the final stages, and this past weekend we got the tile and installed it on the back wall.  Shopping for tile was one of those tough decisions - we wanted travertine to match the sink, so those would tie together, but so many choices!  The tile we'd looked at in the past were sheets of mosaic in a nice linear pattern that we'd thought of putting in vertically instead of horizontally. 

(Notice the broken tiles in the sheet above)

 We also considered this tile for texture, but all the installation pieces showed how visible the individual seams appeared.  And the texture could have been a problem considering that this would also be behind the stove.  We don't want to keep dust and airborne grease specks trapped in this -- so we rejected this one.

We ended up getting the tiles in the first photo - but as we went through, so many of the tiles were broken.  We had to pick through all the boxes to find sheets in good shape - and since we were buying around 500 dollars worth of tile, we wanted them perfect, of course.  After got them all loaded on the cart, an employee came by and told us if we wanted to buy the sheets that had broken pieces, they'd give them to us half price.  Ohhhh, tempting -- we could pull out the broken ones and buy a couple extra sheets and fit them in......but, from past experience I know that fitting in individual pieces on mosaic sheets is a lot of hassle, and often it's difficult to get everything to lie flat.  So we decided to just make it easier on ourselves and buy the nicest tiles available.

The wall needed a bit of touch up sanding in spots, but we got going quickly enough.  These things always take longer than we think, so I didn't want to delay.







 I worked from the flat outer wall, left to right, so I could have a perfect edge to start.  I got one vertical row done, nice spacers all placed, but this tile is SO heavy that it was just sagging so much -- so instead of using spacers, I used finish nails and propped each tile up on several rows.  This worked great, and held the tiles right where I wanted them.  This way, I could maintain nice horizontal lines.











Dale had to get an action shot of me getting the tiles in place!

We love how it came out!  This is before grout (which I finished last night), and you can see the apparently random support tiles I added in where the vent is going.  The vent was the other project we thought we'd have all done this weekend -- we got it all put up, and when we hooked up the electrical -- nothing.  We tried multiple connections, used our testing tools, and it appears that the switch is bad.  We called all the help lines, and we were told to just take it down and bring it back to IKEA.  Which was WRONG.  We brought it back, and the returns employee was sympathetic, but said they do not take returns on installed items, we had to call the Whirlpool (who makes IKEA appliances) repair and have them come out and fix it.  So they will be here tomorrow.  But in the meantime, we thought it would be good to get the tile in and I placed a few pieces to support some of the brackets so they don't bend when we tighten the hanging screws.  So hopefully, today we get the vent installed AGAIN, and Dale is going to get the venting in place as well.  We opted to go out the wall instead of the roof, since our roof is in such bad condition and it would be easy to go straight out here on this outside wall. 

Kind of hard to see in the early morning light!

I also have a couple of shelves to put up here to the right of the vent, but I want to wait on getting those put up until I decide how long to make them -- I don't want the wall to look crowded now that we can see how pretty the tile wall looks!

(can't get the image turned vertically, blogger is giving me some grief this morning)

Finally -- now that we are done tiling, we can sell our trusty tile saw.  We got it for a hundred dollars, and have saved a fortune on rentals.  We'd like to sell it for a bit of a profit -- we did put a new blade on it (which cost 50 dollars), so it'd be nice to get that back, too. 

Floor done!

Well, I'm exhausted, my feet are killing me, and I think I've scrubbed 10 layers of skin off, but I got the tile all grouted today!  I do have a few little touch-ups I want to make, but those can wait for a few weeks. 

On Sunday Dale and I finished all the tiling.  We used leftover pieces to fill in where the dishwasher, stove and refrigerator will be going.  We did have to run out and buy 5 more diamond border pieces, I had that miscalculated, but at the same time, we picked up our sink, so it worked out.

I am really happy with the finished look!   And our official inspectors approved as well:

Persephone laid on the center support of the bench, she was really liking her perch overlooking the floor.  But Mercury was NOT happy she was up there, and he kept trying to knock her off.

Each of the corners has a different solution to the greek key turning the corner.

 

Hopefully they blend in enough -- although we can see them immediately!

Today I finished the grouting.  Because we used marble tile, we had to use unsanded grout.  I hate unsanded grout.  I hate the texture, the way it shrinks, the feel of it.  But that's what we had to use, so that's what I did.  I have a few low spots that need another layer of grout, but I'd like to wait a week or two so all the shrinking is complete. 

The grout makes it look so much richer - I used black grout, which is a complete pain because it's so dark and it stains my hands and the buckets and it takes forever to rinse off completely. But it looks awesome!

Here's what it looks like on the left before grouting, and on the right afterwards. 

So, now we can actually move some stuff back in!  (after the grout sets for 24 hours).  We want to get the appliances moved in, although that means we have a little bit of drywall to repair first --

We have guests coming on Friday, so it would be nice if we could at least get the refrigerator and stove out of the living room by then!

I'm glad this step is done - it's a really busy floor, but I think it's going to look great with the cabinets and counters.  I wanted to get the feel of a Paris bistro or something along those lines.  I'm happy with it!

Floor

I had hoped to get some of the tile in before the weekend, but here it is Saturday and I'm not quite done with it.  We spent some time earlier in the week getting the backer board in and adhered and screwed down with a zillion screws...

That took a couple of days because some stuff came up at work, but we had that in by Friday.  While Dale was working on getting all that in, I got started on the built-in banquette:

This will be great to store a lot of those not-too-often used items, holiday stuff, etc.  I am contemplating the top hinged top - do I want to use plywood or do I want to put some boards together?  Does it really matter - we are going to put a thick cushion on this anyway, so I will probably go with plywood.  Problem is, it's just over 8' long -- like 6" too long, so I'm trying to come up with a way to create 2 - 4' hinged panels, and make up the 6" elsewhere.  Maybe I'll just bring the sides in a bit so the top has something substantial to sit on. Dale sat on it and approved of the height - he was worried it was going to be too low, and I can only go up to the bottom of the window frame.  But it was perfect in height.  It's going to be painted white like the rest of the trim.

While I was hammering the frame into place, I misjudged and whacked my finger with the hammer.  I've done this a million times, but this time, the results were pretty spectacular:

It didn't hurt until I taught in the afternoon:  we were working on clay, and I think when I was kneading the clay I got the blood flowing internally or something.  Man, this hurt! Oh, and my finger was already bent - I've got arthritis in this finger, which was one of the reasons it hurt so bad when I hit it--

So yesterday (Friday), I got started on the field tiles for my kitchen:

I had a zillion cuts to make, and I want a very very minimal grout line, so making them super accurate was imperative.  I love the marble tile -- carrara white and nero black.  Love the veining in the black.  So this was an all day Friday thing, getting all the pieces cut, laid, edges perfect.  Before laying the tile, I had to mark off my border all around the room - I have 22" worth of borders to put around.  Oh, and the plywood above is where the cabinets will go.  We are going to tile plain tiles under the refrigerator, dishwasher and stove.

Last night we had a ton of wind - the Santa Anas were kicking up, and we were up and down all night.  It's also hot with those winds, so not a good nights sleep.  And the noise outside kept the cats all riled up all night.  So we didn't get started as early as I wanted to today, but we got busy and figured out the cuts for our borders --

The hardest part is making the corners work on the mosaic borders.  After some messing around, we figured it out and then we made more progress.  Oh, and the open pocket door above is going to be closed in after we get the cabinets installed - right now it's convenient to be able to go in and out while we have it all tented off, but we won't need that doorway after, so our tile stops at where the wall will be.

By the end of today, we got 3/4 through with the borders, and we stopped to take stock and see how we were doing on supplies.

 We realized we were going to be short 5 strips of the top diamond-shaped border.  We have about 6 extra of the greek key, and we need 5 more black tiles to go under the refrigerator.  Originally, I was going to put plywood there as well, but in the meantime Dale decided we should go ahead and tile under that area as well (it's the blank spot above, you can see the water connector for the icemaker).  We still have to patch drywall there, but we have a few other minor things before we get that done. 

So tomorrow, we are going to go out and pick up those last few pieces, and probably get our kitchen sink as well at the same time.  I fell in love with one at the tile shop, but I'm not sure if they still have it in stock, so we'll check to see that, too.  I also want to look at backsplash tiles to match the sink. 

Hopefully, finish tiling on Sunday, and grout the whole thing on Monday, so I am getting excited that things are moving along!  I wanted to have things further, but this is what it is, so I'll be happy with that.  Maybe I'll even take some time out for a movie tomorrow if we get done early enough!

and now, the floor

Finally, the wall is down and we could remove the temporary support.  The opening is so huge!  We hadn't had a chance to see it all clear without either plastic or the temporary support in place, so when we finally removed everything, we were a little surprised at how large the opening was!

Don't you love the precariously hanging fluorescent fixture?  That's gotta go soon enough.

Today, we got started on removing the floor.  We cut through the linoleum and the plywood, and then pulled it up in sections, so we exposed the subfloor.

Lots of nails to pry up and we had a chance to inspect the subfloor planks.  There  are a couple of planks we will need to replace, there is some termite damage.  In southern CA, it's extremely common to have termites, since there's nothing to kill them.  So it's not a matter of IF you have termite damage, but how much.  We have a very small amount in the kitchen, just in one corner, and it has all been treated, so it's not active.  We just need to replace the damaged wood.

 So here's the room now.  We laid down a sheet of plywood on the damaged section so the cats will leave it alone.  Next, we are going to cut the subfloor right across the center of the room, so we can move the gas and plumbing lines.  After we took this picture, we marked out where the island will be, so we know where to have the kitchen plumbing for the sink and dishwasher come up, since they'll be in the island.  The gas line will be moved to where the dishwasher currently is.  Then we'll close the floor up again, leaving the stubs up, and then we can lay the underlayment for tile.

I worked out a plan for the tile -- it will have a pattern something along these lines:

It'll have a 21" border that has a variety of black, white, and mosaic border sections.  This will run all along the walls, with a black/white checkerboard on the diagonal inside.

  I'm anxious to get that started!

s.l.o.w. p.r.o.g.r.e.s.s

I don't know if I can even call it progress, that's how slow it's going.  Dale had to work overtime all week and weekend (he worked over 75 hours this past week!) so when he came home each night, he sort of just took a shower then dropped into a chair for a couple of hours before going to bed.  And I've had the semester start off with all kinds of issues, so since we tore the wall down, nothing has gone on there.  Well, I did take down the plastic after cleaning up the rest of the plaster removal.

The cats are loving the open wall.  They see the horizontal braces as the ideal perch to survey the house.  I keep trying to knock them off so they won't get into more trouble, but they are persistent.






Because when Dale is home I can't even bang things around since he needs his sleep, I ran out to check out a tile shop in Orange County.  I am wanting to do a black and white checkered floor in the kitchen, but I don't want it to look all country, I'd like it to be a little more elegant.  I love this picture of a tile floor:

(from my Pinterest board on house ideas)

I love the black and white checkerboard on the diagonal, and the bands of borders around the side.  But I want it to be in a richer finish, so I went out to check out some marble.    I picked up some 12 x 12 tiles of carrara and nero marble for the field, and a couple of marble mosaic borders.  I laid them out and love the way they look.  So now I have to map out the floor and plan the design.  I am hoping to hit another shop this week to look at kitchen cabinets -- we are likely going with IKEA cabinets, but I'd like to see what other options we might explore before we commit.

Finally....starting to tile

OK -this is getting kind of ridiculous - between Dale working overtime and me finishing up the semester with meetings and grading, we just weren't getting anything done at all.  But finally this week we have the shower pan poured and now it's tile for awhile!

Hard to take a picture this evening - the tile is bright white and I am hoping to get the walls done tomorrow morning.  I have a few tiles that I need a wet saw to cut, so I am just leaving those until I rent one this weekend (I need one for the floor), but I should have all the wall field tiles done.  I am hoping to post a picture this weekend of a semi-complete shower.  The room still needs drywall and a floor, but what I am really wanting is a finished shower!