Zee tiles, boss! Zee tiles!

[c9]

Done. Finally. Special thanks to benjidacruick and Ashif for the help!



Tiles partway done, with horrid old floor visible:


Tiles all placed, but no grout yet:


Tiles grouted, sealed, and appliances put back in place:


Is that spiffy or what?

Comments

[kabuki-mask.livejournal.com]

That looks lovely!

[c9.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was approximately nineteen on a scale of one to ten, measuring pain in the ass.

[friendofjack.livejournal.com]

Nice. You did it yourselves, I take it? Looks good to me.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Yup - my very first time tiling. What a pain! But it looks good, so I'm not that bitter. :)

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

Next time you're in town, you've got a job supervising a tile-laying job! I'll even let you help rip up the hardwood...

[c9.livejournal.com]

Woo! That should keep me busy while Vinny's at his class reunion this Christmas. :)

The big challenge I found was the amount of time in between each step: it took forever when combined with having a job and life!

Lay tile (not too bad in and of itself), then wait 24+ hours. Remove excess mortar from between tiles (painfully slow and ruins your screwdriver). Grout (fun and fast), then wait 30 minutes. Carefully clean tiles of excess grout (a couple hours annoyingly). Wait 48+ hours. Seal the grout (20 minutes, not bad really). Wait 3 hours. Move back into kitchen.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Kitchen was disassembled Monday, October 16th. It was reassembled last night. Ugh. I'm so sick of McD's. :)

(actually, only two visits to McDonald's. But lots of sushi and microwaved food.)

[canuckotter.livejournal.com]

Looks very nice! Good job. :-)

[rebelprince26.livejournal.com]

how fancy! you're such the home improvement guy!

[rostin79.livejournal.com]

what a difference some hot tiles make!

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

The final outcome looks nice but I can't only see the last 2 pictures, the first 2 aren't showing for some reason.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Have you tried rebooting? :)

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

Hehe. I never rebooted but I can see them all now. Did you reboot? ;)

[c9.livejournal.com]

Nope, especially since it's Ben's server. Also, everyone else could see all four. Weird.

[sarah-sosiak.livejournal.com]

That looks great! It's hard to believe that it's the same kitchen I saw when I first came to visit back in the "horribly ugly cat-sweatshirt paintjob" days.

[skaughty.livejournal.com]

looks great cam!! did you lay the tile right over the old vinyl?

(and i'll pretend that i didn't notice the partial tiles cut for around the fridge cabinet - tsk tsk!)

[c9.livejournal.com]

Listen, sister...!

Yes, right over the vinyl (after sanding of course).

We have no wet saw (do *you*??) so we had to use partials in those cases. The grout hides it well, actually.

[skaughty.livejournal.com]

only complete anal-retentives like me would ever notice. it looks great, and the kitchen reno has added big $s to your re-sale value.. just promise me that you'll let me oversee any tile installation in any future condo where you plan on staying for awhile - i'll rent the wet saw myself!

[c9.livejournal.com]

Oh hush.

Actually, next time I'll know to do the tiles before anything gets installed on top. We weren't sure (or solvent enough) to make that decision this time.