Brickhouse Hipster

Wow gang, sorry it's taken me a few days to post. Let's just say, tiling a kitchen floor is no joke! I'm just now getting all the mortar out from under my fingernails, but the floor itself looks awesome!
Here's a super flattering pic of me layin' it down...

The kitchen started to seem much larger than we remembered as time went on. Here we are, almost finished. And because I have a supremely awesome husband, when we got down to an area large enough for only one of us to work, he re-read Catching Fire to me to keep me sane!

Right: Fat Max box cutter for mortar scraping and general cutting; Top Center: Sponge for cleaning said pesky mortar; Right: Catching Fire by: Suzanne Collins for reading and wife sanity maintaining.

It turned out to be a longer process than we anticipated, but we learned a great deal!! Our biggest tips? Invest in a good pair of knee pads!! Your precious joints will thank you! Also, get the mortar mix exactly right! I'm considering devoting an entire post to the science of mixing mortar because, as it turns out, the right mix is EVERYTHING! We found this out after a particularly grueling evening with a too-thin mixture and no dry material left to thicken it up. The result, floating tiles that refuse to stay in place, thus throwing off the rest of the row and generally being a pain. But, we persevered and here's how it looks all clean and grouted.

Lowes: Canyon Slate Ceramic Tile

I'd love to show you the whole floor, buuuuut.....
Our brand new cabinets arrived today and they're occupying most of it! The in-laws will be here in a few days to help with the install, so look forward to that!! (I know I am!)

Make no mistake, a kitchen remodel is the true test of a marriage! I think we've recovered well from this weekend's subflooring adventure, though we're still pretty sore and groan-y. There were several trips to Lowes, the untimely death of our brand new chalk line reel, and lots of grumpiness and "I can't do this!" declarations (mostly from me) as we worked late into Sunday night, but we managed to escape largely unscathed. Being the newbie fixer-uppers that we are, we were clueless as to just how involved laying cement backer board would be and Kevin now thinks that the backer board folks are in cahoots with the screw manufacturers! (We counted 49 screws per a full panel.) But, it looks pretty good so far. We have a little more taping and mortaring to do this evening and then we can lay the actual tile!!

Pretty professional looking, no? Check out the new drywall under the window...we did that too!

I have to admit, even though this experience was pretty overwhelming at times, I'm still really encouraged and looking forward to laying the tile ourselves. It's amazing the perspective you get with a day of rest. We've also put a deposit down on a couple slabs of beautiful granite for the countertops. Man, I can't wait to see it all come together. Mostly, I can't wait to show it off!

Well, I suppose we shall find out together, won't we? Since we're well into our first major remodeling project on our house, I thought a blog would be a great way to document the process and reveal what can only be the most glorious outcome of all time. Besides, I'm a sucker for some good Before and After photos!! (Who isn't?)

When we first looked at our little brick rancher I was, shall we say, somewhat hesitant to consider it as a real contender. The house itself has great bones, tons of windows, lots of closets and storage space, a very pretty finished basement and a decent sized yard (not too much to deter the hubby from ever mowing and not so little that we're living on a postage stamp). What I'm saying is, it's cute--a perfect first home! Here are some photos our amazing real estate agent, Lynn, took for us just to give you an idea.

Miss Lynn took these once our offer had been accepted back in October 2009. We've changed a few things in the front, including 86ing those random shrubs in favor of perennial flower beds and digging out a walkway from the driveway to the porch, to give it a little more curb appeal. A way-in-the-future project is a bigger front porch. (We LOVE front porches!!)

The bright living room with the yummy recessed lighting was certainly plus! And just look at those hardwood floors!!! Wait, what's that you say?? It's laminate? Yep, what looks like gorgeous wood flooring is actually some high-quality laminate. We love it because it looks like the real thing, but we can be a little rougher with it and not worry about those darn scratches!

The huge finished basement was pretty much what sold the house (especially for Kevin). The windows let in tons of daylight and we could just picture the perfect little wet bar right over there in the corner. Plus, at 2000 sq. ft (total up & down), well, there just wasn't that much house in our price range anywhere else. So, why would one hesitate when all systems seem go? Well...

Oh yeah, check out that kitchen, folks! Pink wall tile, pink and white curling linoleum floors, a tiny row of cabinets with drawers that don't fully open unless the stove door is open...I mean, what's not to love? So yes, as someone who loves to cook, this was far from the gourmet kitchen of my dreams. However, my woodworker father-in-law assured us that he had some friends in high places in the cabinet world and most of the destruction and assembly work could be done ourselves with his expert assistance. And so, with that condition firmly in place, we purchased our first home, cruddy kitchen and all. The remodel is under way, the folks at Lowes and Home Depot are becoming our BFFs, and we're adding skills to our home owners resume daily! Stay tuned...