Measure twice - cut once.

Laying tile is fun work for me and I enjoy it, although I would not want to do it for a living. In our house we decided to get a little fancy, which means the tile saw is getting a real workout - as is my tape measure. In some areas there are up to seven cut tiles for every whole one. Yesterday I did the main tiling down the center of the hallway and the bulk of the area in the dining room. The key here was to get the lines and diamond pattern to be perfectly straight.

In the next few days I'll be carefully measuring and cutting each edge tile and then carefulluy gluing them into place. I'm looking forward to the challenge!

-grampa dan

Details take the time but look great!

I decided to lay our own ceramic tile in the house because we desire lots of small details that would simply cost a fortune if we were to hire a professional to do them. Every doorway has a transitional strip of small tiles. Through the main living areas, living room, dining room, kitchen and hallways the tile is laid on the diagonal, with small square inserts to make things interesting. It all takes time nnd as usual in this kind of situation (a common occurance in my life) I sometimes wonder what I got myself into about 3/4 way through the job. But at the end of each day I stand back and look at the day's acomplishments and it makes me smile. When the house is finally finished there will be few regrets for we made few compromises along the way.

Tonight I laid the bulk of the tile in the pantry area, which is adjacent to the kitchen on the west end of the house. The diagonal tiles meant plenty of careful cuts to make things fit around the cupboards. We did the tile after the cupboards (not usual we know) so that the baseboards fit perfectly. 

Each area of the house was carefully planned and then executed so everything works together as it should. The double door fridge we purchased for the house was a large one and deeper than normal. To accomodate this we set the wall behind it back six inches so the fridge did not stick out into the kitchen. Its one more small detail that makes a big difference to the finished house. In this area, like under the dish washer, range and upright freezer we put in a transition strip with small cut tiles and then laid the tile in square behind the cupboard line. Each closet got the same treatment as well.

This is the transition strip between the front entry and the pantry. I have a eleven more tiles to cut and lay tomorrow in order to finish off the pantry area.

There are now far more tile laid than still in the stack in the living room and it feels great to be that far! Everyone else is putting the pressure on to be finally done. I don't need much encouragement to get this thing done!

-grampa dan

One square foot at a time

We continue working our way through the house with final paint and tile work. Kendra was busy today painting the doors while Sarah was up on the scaffold painting the bridge.

I managed to get the tile laid and grouted through the kitchen area, bringing final move in one step closer.

It feels more like home every day.

-grampa dan