Photos of First Tiling

Here are a few shots of what's been done so far. None of these have been grouted yet. First is the hall bath with the hopscotch pattern. I really like this:

Next is the half bath with the diamond pattern:

Finally, here's the incomplete laundry room. You can see how the orange Ditra underlayment is underneath.

Full-Blown Tiling Started

I've tiled two and a half rooms in the house so far. The hall bath was first on Monday, 4/13. I did a hopscotch pattern, and it came out fantastic (pictures coming soon). It also took a long time. I started laying tile around 2pm and we finally wrapped up and went home around midnight. I think it's because it was my first time with the different pattern and because there were so many nooks and crannies with the toilet space, the closet, and two door frames.

Next came the half bath and part of the laundry room on Wednesday. I used a diamond pattern in the half bath. That room looks great also. The laundry room floor is graded toward the center floor drain, and we were concerned about some tiles not sitting flat on the floor. I used a more generous bed of thinset to give all tiles more support. It worked out pretty well. I still have the other half of this room to tile.

I've taken time off to work on the software contract job I have. Most of this week will be spent on the job as well. Monday and Tuesday of next week (4/27-4/28) will be spent on site with the client. Then I can get paid! That will help with the house project.

I haven't grouted anywhere except the bathroom in the back garage. In there, I used grout from Home depot. It was a bone color on the box, but dried completely white. It does not look good. Also, the grout I bought for my big tile in the kitchen and TV room now appears way too light. They won't take it back, so I'm stuck with 125 lbs of grout I can't use. Getting dark gray grout is one of the next things on my list.

Started Tiling in the House

After a week of working on my contract job and not even going to the new house, we were back there on Friday to lay my first room with the orange tile underlayment called Ditra from a compnay called Schluter. This stuff is put down using a layer of thinset, just like tile. The tile will be put down over this stuff using more thinset.

The purpose of the underlayment is to de-couple the cement floor from the tile. If the cement floor cracks over time, there's a buffer between it and the tile that minimizes the chance of the crack translating to the tile. The underlayment has a 3D shape similar to a waffle.

It also has the benefit of being a moisture barrier so that wetness from the ground can't come up into the tile. Finally, it's supposed to provide a bit of sound dampening. I'm hopeful that it will take the edge off the cavernous echo that would otherwise come from tile throughout the house.

Today, we'll continue installing this underlayment in the other bathroom and luandry room (I don't plan on using it in the master bathroom). On Monday, I hope to start laying the tile in these rooms.

Kithcen Corner Cabinets Installed

The cabinet guys were out again on Wednesday to install the corner cabinets in the kitchen now that the coutertops are in place. It looks good! There are some decisions I need to make about trim moulding where the cabinet meets the countertop, and also around the microwave opening.

On Thursday, I picked up the final oversized sink for the master bath. The countertop guys came out later that day to install it and finish caulking in some places. My mom and I had made a thorough inspection of everything and found a few details for them to address: There was a window sill they made for me that was installed off-level, one sink was mounted off-center from its hole, the hall bath counter has a splotch of discoloration, and and some places needed either a touch-up of caulk or hadn't been caulked at all yet.

They took care of everything except the two most noticeable things: the off-center sink and the discoloration. He informed me that fixing the sink would entail removing the entire counter and chiseling off the sink (since they attached them using a thick epoxy glue). This might damage the sink.

The discoloration was a manufacturing defect, he told me. I wondered why they didn't see this spot during their fabrication process. It looked like they could have easily spun the slab around and let the spot be in the area the cut out for the sink. I asked if they could make another slab for me. He called and got permission to do that, but again, it would involve breaking the seal to remove the undermount sink. This could damage the sink.

So instead of risking the broken sinks, I asked for a discount to compensate for both of these issues. We settled on $225. Yes, I probably should have pushed for more. I'm just not good at that kind of thing.

I've been spending time working on a contract job I landed. I need to finish the job because I need the money for the house. So the last 3 days have mostly been spent on that. Tomorrow, we'll go back and touch up more trim. I'd also like to start laying tile in either the laundy room or one of the bathrooms.