we can do it..

For a little while I have been going back and forth about the floor in the down stair bathroom. We talked with "floor people" and thought about vinyl and then tile. (both pretty expensive) just when I thought I made up my mind about the vinyl, I saw the nice tile in Kelli and Rick's bathrooms and went back to the tile idea. Then that was another whole conversation (and sticker shock) with the floor people... so, we decided that we would look into doing it ourselves.

We went to the home store, looked over all the tiles, talked with the folks there and decided, yes, we would do it. Ed has done tiling before and "hates doing it".. (he really can't be on his knees for any length of time) so I said I would like to give it a try.




After finding out what we needed for supplies, turns out it's WAY cheaper to do it yourself and basically, if you take your time and are careful... you can do a pretty professional looking job.

Now, since I was doing the tiles... Ed took over the measuring and cutting department - which is good, because I'm not crazy about using "equipment"....

step one... cement board.




Just getting that into place and covering the (very dirty) plywood floor made a huge difference.











And (bonus) the tiles that I picked for the bathroom were on sale!!!! That was a really nice surprise. We "rough laid" it out to get an idea of where to start... mixed the cement...











started cutting the tiles that needed to be done...














and got to work. I did one row at time, that way I didn't have too much cement on the floor.. and could easily reach the sections that I was working in. It was good having Ed cut, and then the pieces were ready when I needed them. I actually found it fun... it's a lot like quilting in some ways.








I was very happy to "find" that last piece though... being on the floor that long does take a toll on the body, but surprisingly I wasn't sore the next day!!!!


I thought I had a "finished" photo to show on the blog, but don't see one. We still have to do the grout, so, we really aren't quite finished, but it looks really good, even if I do say so. Now, I am excited to do the other tile projects which will be the mudroom, the kitchen and the pantry... so.. check another project off the list... it's getting down, but time is ticking!!!!!!!!!!