Sunday, April 27, 2008

And the project continues...

New tile behind the stove!
Near the window, see little orchid peaking out from the left...

So we finally got the tile sort of done in the kitchen. At the end of it all, what have I learned? A) Always trust my instincts when I think I can do it myself and B) you truly do get what you pay for. We had a referral to a "tile guy" from the woman from Sears who sold us the counter tops. The guy was local, and a reasonable price. Turns out his attention to detail leaves a little to be desired. I am pretty sure he doesn't do much in a sober state of existence. Unlike my former neighbor, who I liked to call Drunk Ed, who would do the most meticulous work possible while being a constate state of near spontaneous combustion from a combination of the scotch he consumed and the cigarette that was never out of his mouth, this guy was not as careful. Some of the cuts are downright TERRIBLE. The tile, as you can see in the picture, is 1 inch by 1 inch glass tile. This is harder to install than your basic 4 X 4 or 6 X 6 ceramic tile. Cutting it is a bear. With the exception of having the equipment to cut the tile however, I could have done this job. I have installed tile before. I did the floor in the upstairs bathroom in my previous house and did the wall at one end of my shower in the same house. But the Bob felt it would be good to hire someone this time, mostly because of having Cooper. He knew it would take me longer, which it would have, and it was going to be a lot of work, which is also true. But in the end, he said he was sorry he didn't let me do it. The guy didn't do too much that I can't fix, but there are some things that need fixing.

All in all though, I love the tile. I love the look of it when you turn on the lights and it almost glows. And I discovered when I went to make a drink the other night that while the tile company calls the color simply "green", I am going to call it "Tanqueray Green" as it is exactly the color of the gin bottle.

The next task is to get new outlet and switchplate covers. Did you know that Home Depot and Lowe's are almost USELESS for this task? I started out wanting something pretty reasonable - ivory or almost colored powder coated steel covers. Not plastic, metal. You would think I was looking for them made out of platinum. I ended up buying some online that are brushed nickel instead. More pictures to come when they arrive!

1 comment:

N said...

That green is such a deep, rich color.

One of the things we put more money into in our remodel was the tile and the tile installation, and that was one of the only things we were happy with - you're so right that you get what you pay for in the construction world.