Tiling Project...

With house projects there always seems to be a story... at least with us there is.

Tile project #1 in current home...

Saturday was filled with planning and moving around the tile pattern pattern to avoid those "oh crap this doesn't fit here!" moments. We headed to Lowes with our handy dandy list of materials needed... feeling pretty proud of ourselves for it was only 9:30 in the morning. The kiddos who have grown up in Lowe's should feel right at home here but instead find the worse times to act up. Ainsley's off dancing down the aisle doing spins and twirls which prompts Walker to say, "Mommy... " 47 times getting louder with each one because he's contained in the cart and now wants to be out loose with Ainsley (which by the way is so not happening... and why he's in the cart in the first place) because us parents are trying to decide which grout color will match the best and reading packages on mortar.

So after a frazzled trip we head home with high hopes of the project that lay ahead... have lunch and start... wow 12:30 not too bad. Snap the chalk line... mix a big ol 50 lb bucket of mortar because we have nearly 200 square feet to tile to lay...

We put down 5 whole field tiles before we have to stop... grab the tile saw and cut tiles to fit.. As Stewart gets this all out, I'm inside trying to entertain Walker because with school out and no schedule to follow the kiddos are kind of at loose ends... not sure what to do with the free time they now have. He's decided he wants to help Daddy and although it's pretty darn cute tiling is not a project one should take on with a 6 year old helper. So he grabs his handy plastic tools and I set him to work "fixing" things. First up checking all the knobs in the kitchen to make sure they are nice and tight...

As all this is going on I hear the saw turn on... the first tile being cut... well trying to cut... the tile saw completely stops... bogged down... starts again and then the cut is done and I check the outcome... we could have chewed it off better! I vaguely remember a conversation that took place in NY when we tiled the outside porches that consisted of the tile saw dying... but we were going to keep it in case it was needed in a pinch.

So back to Lowe's... all of us since one can not continue to tile with out cut tile pieces... decide that since this is our first of many tiling projects in current house we will buy the $300 tile saw. Happy with purchase head home... open up box... start assembling new tile saw... hmm... NO saw blade!!! Are you kidding??? Back down to Lowe's we go.

Lovely Lowe's associates can not figure out how to return saw correctly... finally with manager's help they get it done and we decide to open up box in store to make sure all parts are there. Yeah they are.

Home and tile saw assembled start first cut with new saw...

We cut a few more and then decide to lay those down... it's now been 4 hours since we first started laying those 5 tiles... we open up the 50lb bucket of mortar only to find it's set... hardened... finished! Ahhh

It was quite a day Saturday... Sunday and Monday were better we finished up laying tile Monday afternoon. Ready to grout it tonight.

Kiddos... what did they do the rest of the weekend??? There was lots of this...

lots of fighting one minute and playing... giggling the next. Walker was ready for anything in his spy gear...

And Ainsley did lots of reading... even if it was in strange places...

All in all a good project to get done and finished. I will show some before and after pictures later in the week, once everything is put back to normal.

The weekend ended with yummy pea salad, hot dogs and 2 kinds of rhubarb desserts. Summer can officially now start since the first round of rhubarb has been picked, chopped, bagged for winter and baked into the usual sour cream rhubarb pie and a new keeper recipe called rhubarb squares.

whew... long post.