Study Construction

We went back to our surplus store to get more unfinished cabinetry, just like the ones we used in the kitchen.  We looked at other options, particularly Ikea, but these unfinished oak cabinets are such good quality and price, we went this way again.

We chose several upper cabinets to store office supplies, and two large pantry pieces for craft supplies.  The pantries will eventually be converted to wardrobes for guests once the addition is built, which includes a fantastic upstairs craft room!  But I'm getting waaaay ahead of myself...

Demo was really simple- tear out the teal carpet.  Remove the closet door.  Remove baseboards and trim.  Done!  We then drywalled the closet doorway.

Paint went up next:  Spice Delight on the ceiling, Khaki on the walls, and Phoenix Sunrise on the accent wall.

Next HoneyDo mounted the cabinets and I got to work painting.  It was kitchen cabinet deja vu!

Here are the uppers on the left side (next to the window), mounted and painted.

And the right side of the room, cabinets installed.

I wanted a *lot* of desk space.  We chose butcher block countertops from Ikea for this job, which we snagged when we got the piece for the island.  We also got the legs and these Capita brackets from Ikea:

Oh, yeah, and we ran the same hardwood flooring in here that's throughout the house.

Then we tiled above the desk space to add some texture and interest to the room.

Next time, I'll post the finished product!

Making a (Back)Splash

She Says:

Next came the backsplash in the kitchen.  As with our previous tiling escapades, things get a little too... intense... to take photos.  Because there's so much actual wall space (relative to the cabinets... it felt like acres of wall space while we were tiling) in this kitchen, we decided to tile everything except part of the area behind the coffee/wine bar.  (That's right, a coffee and wine bar.  Jealous much?)

He says:

Tiles recommended for a backsplash have one thing in common:  They are easy to cut around electric outlets.  We overlooked this and chose a 3" square glass tile.  This left us needing to make some complex cuts and this is exceedingly difficult to do with a glass tile this large.

She Says:

But they're so pretty!

These are hand painted glass tiles, by Bellavita Tile, the Bamboo Series, camel color.  You have to use a white thinset or mastic behind glass tiles so that the thinset doesn't alter the color of the tiles.  We used Mapei's Straw color grout.

Despite the cutting difficulties, we did get it done, and here is the result:

This is a view of the bar, cabinets are primed.

We went up and all around the garden window, and it looks fantastic!

And here's the the side opposite the window.  

BTW, besides picking a tile size that was difficult to work with, we also chose (and painted) the cabinet color before choosing our tile.  We *really* lucked out and found a tile that we loved which just happened to match our particular paint color.  Not smart, but all's well that ends well, right?

A Shower of Tiles

She Says:

The next tiling project is the shower.  We chose a glass mosaic:

The color is Iceland, by Bliss Tile.

Here's the first wall.

And a close up, ungrouted of the tile around what will soon be the window.

The second shower wall tiled, and a goofy HoneyDo has just cut the hole for the window!

Here's the window installed.  As you can see, it offers a beautiful view onto the back of the property.

And finally, all three sides of the shower tiled, window in.

He Says:

Never again.  Next time we do a shower, we're using a nice, sane 12x12 tile like normal people do.  The number of hours I spent tweaking the alignment of every last one of those thousands...hey wait, I can calculate this...over 28,000 individual tiles in this shower cannot be expressed.  It took a LONG time.  The mesh backing sorta holds the tiles in alignment, but not really.  Many of them still have to be tweaked by hand if you want them to be perfect.

It is a cool shower though.  I sealed the window mechanisms with silicone caulk.  The corners of the shower were also sealed with silicone.  It's really nice to be able to open the window while you take a shower if you want.

She Says:

HoneyDo finished the shower tile area, but before we could install the shower door, the rest of the wall tile needed to go up.  Since the mosaic tile drove HoneyDo a little bit crazy, the subway tile was all me.

It took a long. time.  I don't know what he was complaining about... sure, he had to lay 28,000 tiles, but his tiles were on a 12 inch square mesh... The subway tiles had to be laid one by one, like bricks.

I was surprised at how physically challenging this job was- my arms were sore for days!  But progress was made, row by row, then the mosaic accent, then one last row, and done!  The next day, I grouted them using a while grout:

Next came the installation of the shower door.  Although it went smoothly, 2 large pieces of glass being wielded around in a very small space was rather tense at times, and photography tends to be forgotten at moments like these.  So here it is in situ:

He Says:

The Dreamline door kit is simple and straightforward.  The glass is tempered and ground to a nice non-threatening soft edge.  Be aware that tempered glass is finicky.  You can hit the large flat face with a hammer and it won't break, but sometimes a surprisingly soft tap on the edge will shatter it.  So, we handled the glass with care.  The aluminum frame is sealed to the walls and pan with clear silicone caulk.

At this point we could start taking showers in this nice, new, clean shower and not in the weird dark moldy cave of the other shower.  Ahh.  Nice.

The Floor Tile Finds Its Way

She Says:

Okay, the walls are in, and once we get the floor prepped, we'll be ready to tile!

We installed a Schluter system as our waterproof membrane.

He Says:

Schluter products are awesome.  Lots of good printed info on them, and plenty of installation videos on the web.  Specifically, this is their de-coupling membrane, which both waterproofs a floor installation and prevents cracking of the tile.  Highly recommended.  Be aware that use a membrane like this takes up a LOT of thinset and you must follow the Schluter instructions as to the type of thinset mortar used. 

She Says:

Now for the floor tile-

We chose a 12x18 porcelain for the floor.  We laid out the full tiles first so we could measure the size of the tiles to be cut.

The floor was temporarily delayed while the project manager stopped by for a surprise inspection:

But once she approved, (or lost interest... it's hard to tell with a cat) we were back on track.

Here's a tip: when it comes to tile cutters, you get what you pay for.  At our local Lowe's store, they had 3 to choose from: $20, $40, and $100.  As this was my first time shopping for a tile cutter (and cutting tile, for that matter), I figured, meh, they all look the same.  Why spend $100 when you only have to spend $20?

I found out the answer to that question the hard way.  It turns out, the el cheapo one was, you guessed it, made cheaply!  If you've never cut tile before, it's actually pretty easy.  You score it first with the blade, then press down on the handle, and pop!  The tile breaks right down your scored line.  Unless you buy the el cheapo tile cutter, which just kind of bows disagreeably and chips your tile.  Ugh.  One trip back to Lowe's and $100 later, and I had this beauty:

Works like a charm.  Lesson learned.

Once I had all the tiles cut, I dry fit them all back in the room.  Then I took each one out and laid them out in the order I would be using them in the room next door.  I know, this sounds like anal retentive overkill, which it was.  But in my defense, since the defective tile cutter had eaten several of my tiles, I only had one spare tile left at the end and couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

This was the first floor tile we had ever laid, and I'm not gonna lie... it was rough.  We didn't take any during pictures because we were too intent on getting the job right.  Applying enough thinset so that the tiles will adhere.  Keeping the current tile level with all of its neighbors.  Muscling the tile into place.  Making sure the spacers stay put.  And heaven forbid if we put down too much thinset and had to lift the tile back up again, which we had to do more often than I care to remember.  But when we were done, it looked like this:

We went to bed, exhausted.  The next day, the grout:

A messy job, but enjoyable.

And here's the finished product!  It turned out beautifully, and we learned *a lot* along the way.  Now the tile heads up the walls...