New Floors

So I know I have been out of commission for a couple of weeks, but I do have lots of fun things that I need to update everyone on.

I am going to start with the kitchen/laundry room/entryway re-tiling project.

Since I have kiddos that I keep during the school year, the time had come to get the project done, or we were going to have to wait for another time when kiddos wouldn't be in the way
in danger.

We started by tearing the floor up... this didn't take much since most of the tiles were coming up on their own. I think we finished that part of the project in less than an hour.

The next step was to lay new sub floor. Uncle Don came over to help Brian with that project. In the mean time, our friend Ed came over to tear out the cork floor in the entryway, and I sorted through each tile to make sure there were no imperfections or broken tiles. I had to go and exchange 7 out of 27 boxes of tile... (pretty bad stats if you ask me)... or I'm really picky.







Saturday morning our friend Larry came over to start laying the tile. He would lay tile while I stood behind him handing him the next one I wanted put down (I'm not a control freak... stop thinking that!)




Sunday was finishing the edges and small cuts of tile... then the real fun began... GROUTING! WHAT A MESS...

After the grout dried, we had to put a coat of seal on the tiles. As I was doing this, I realized that the grout color was not evening out, and it was drying about 10 shades lighter than I expected, so I ended up hand staining the grout.... each and every line of it... ugh!

FYI... after this was complete someone mentioned to us that this is not the first time that Lowe's has had trouble with their dry mix colored grout... AVOID IT ALL COSTS.

Here is a pic of the tile before the sealant, and after the sealant. Big difference.


One last coat of seal, and voila, new floors! What a joy to be homeowners.

Here is a pic of the new entryway.

These are the new curtains that I made for the kitchen windows. I have been looking for a pattern that I like for about a year now.

Finally, a special thanks to: Larry, Don, Ed, Karen, Melissa, Nick, Jenn, Jeff, Nana, and Bradley. (and if I forgot someone I am so sorry, I have been inhaling fumes to get this job done, ha!) You all helped us so much to finish this task whether it was giving us the emergency spot at Lowes, feeding us, watching our kids, moving furniture, or getting in there to actually get dirty. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being such a wonderful support system to our family. We love you all.