New Tile

As many of you already know, we recently moved into a new house. Well, not really new because the house is 11 years old but "new" to us. Here is the story of how we DIYed ourselves a tile floor. And by the way, we have never done anything like this before...

So let's start with the much anticipated AFTER photo. Here it is...I am not one for suspense.

BEFORE photo. First we had to tear out the carpet, carpet padding, tack strips, vinyl and trim.

We also painted the walls the same color that the rest of the house is painted. Unify! The concrete slab had a few cracks in it so we filled them before laying the new tile.

Drew (my brother) and I laid out the tile pattern starting from the corner of the dining room. I wanted it laid on the diagonal...of course that makes everything complicated but so totally worth the work.

The appliances had to be moved out of the kitchen. At least that meant that I could thoroughly clean all sides of each appliance! I don't mind dust that I can't see but I do prefer for it to be my dust and not stranger dust.

We rented a wet saw to cut the tile from a local tool rental place. We had it all day on Saturday and Sunday but we only had to pay for 1 1/2 days because Sunday counts as a half day. Just some DIY info for you to put in your back pocket! By the end of the job Phil was an old pro at working the saw.

We spread a layer of thin set mortar directly on the slab. We laid the tile on top of that and pressed it into place. We used spacers to keep the tile pattern uniform.

Thankfully my brother was comfortable showing us how to use the saw!

Some of the cuts got pretty complicated. Check out the tile that wraps around the corner of the bar! Phil did that on the first try!

The dining area had a brass/glass nothing fancy chandelier. The goal is to transition out as much of the brass finishes as possible.

Tada, new chandelier! I love it!

Once the floor was grouted and dried we moved the appliances back into position and put the trim back up.

All of the new lighting fixtures had to be put together.

The next step was to hang up the window treatment and move the furniture in!