kitchen tile

Garrett has been our little buddy helping with this next section of the kitchen. He's taking a breather right now. It's been fun and challenging having him stay with us this summer. I forgot what it's like having an eight year old around, much less a BOY! I still think girls are easier to raise!

We had to first lay down the backer board (thinset has to go down first), then it all has to be screwed down. This gives more strenght to the tile.

Now for the fun part, well I don't know if you really want to call tiling fun, but it sure makes the kitchen come alive!  I love this tile, it's so warm and inviting.

Almost half way done laying...

This center area that's not tiled will be our island and cafe booth. It will have hardwood floors-next phase.

Now for the grout, I personally think this is the hardest stage of laying tile.

Builder Mike smears the grout into all the cracks and I go through and scrub all the extra off the tiles, without taking any out of the cracks. I kinda wanted to go with a deep terra cotta color, but Builder Mike wanted a darker brown-it will probably go better with the cabinets and our dining table and the backsplash we plan on installing, the counter too (more photos to come when we get to that point).

This photo does not really show what the true color of the tile is, you need to come by the house for a  visit to see it.

The cabinets will be coming on Tuesday...YIPEE...There is still a bunch of work to do after the cabinets, but at least the major work is done!

By the way, the tiling and grouting was done all within the last 24 hours. I think our Lake Powell trip will be just the thing we need to rest.

Painting the kitchen

This is just a photo of my front room, my dining table is loaded with building materials, then covered with plastic (I'm not sure why I think this is going to keep the dust off, cause it's an inch thick-not really).

My craftroom/office is also a total mess. I can't wait till the remodeling is done

This photo is used in the post below, sorry, it's getting late. More photos to come tomorrow-tiling the floor!

The paint color is Pottery Barn Philadelphis Cream, Jennifer has one of her rooms painted this color and I really liked it, so now my frontroom, small hall and now kitchen are all this color. It's so much better than plain ole white walls! Just wait to see the cabinets next to it, next week, YAY!

See the plywood on the top landing??? Well, Builder Mike had to take the railings down to tape and texture around it. This is where the wall was bumped out about 5 feet. Since Garrett is staying with us for a couple more weeks, we needed something up there to keep him safe, so a temporary fix for now, till we finish the kitchen.

sheetrockin...

I did it again...got the photos in the wrong order, but I don't think it really matters much. This group of photos is the sheetrock hung, taped, and textured. There's also a long story that goes along with this.  I got two bids and went with the lower of the two (that seems reasonable). Well, unfortunately that was so the WRONG decision. The guy I hired had done the painting in our upstairs bedroom and bathroom last year. He told me he also did sheetrock too, his card even had sheetrocking and painting, so one would think he did this for  a living...well, I was wrong. I was at work when he came over. I will call him Hank (to protect the innocent), and he brought his brother (possibly/probably mentally handicapped, I'm actually being nice) to help. Remember I was at work and Builder Mike was dealing with these clowns on his own. They brought almost all of the sheetrock to be hung. Hank left his brother to hang the sheetrock, who knows where he went off to. What a mistake. Builder Mike was having a coronary just thinking how he wanted to fire these clowns. It was the worse hang job ever. I could have done a better job blindfolded!  All night Builder Mike was stressing as to how he would tell them they were fired.  First thing the next morning, Hank shows up with two gallons of paint (he was going to paint also when the taping and texturing was done). But the first thing he said to Builder Mike was "I quit!"  Builder Mike had to keep a straight face and asked how much we owe for the materials, and Hank felt so bed he couldn't finish the job that he couldn't charge us, and to think we were going to fire him anyways. It' s funny how things turn out. We hired the Muddy Boys and they did a terrific job in a timely manner.

See that little door? I don't like to have a corner cupboard with a lazy susan in it, so we made a door from the outside for storage, it will go between the cabinets from inside. It has a locking door. Once the cabinets are in, this will be easier to picture, I promise.

This is Nephi from the Muddy Boys, he's from San Diego but has lived in Utah for about 14 years. He's very good at taping sheetrock.