Monday, September 13, 2010

Master of Tile

My husband and I took on one heck of a job this weekend – we decided to tile our kitchen floor. At first we were going to just replace the floor those that self-adhesive linoleum tiles – we did that in a bathroom, and it looks pretty nice. Here's the rub, when we went to the home improvement store, we found that the tile that we've been looking at for a long time was on super-sale, and buying real tile and all of the supplies was actually cheaper than the linoleum tiles we picked out.

I've seen a LOT of shows on DIY Network, and laying tile looks hella easy. I mean, as long as you don't jack-up the cuts on the saw, you should be just fine, right? Yeah, no. It actually takes a very long time, and lots of measuring and cutting, and fitting. Once the tile is laid out on the mortar, you can't even walk on it for 2 days! Once the mortar is dry, you grout it, and then have to let it sit again for a day or so. On the shows the people have it grouted by the end of the first day and are enjoying cocktails with the host – no dice, grandma.

We ended up getting most all of the kitchen done and grouted by Sunday afternoon, but we have one more section to do in which we need to move out the fridge, washing machine, and dryer, oh my. That will be another weekend in the not so distant future. Although it was a lot of work, it was very rewarding, and the finished product ain't too bad!

3 comments: