Tile flooring

 When we bought our house brand new in 2004, we could afford to put in the flooring we wanted. We had to go with what the builder had set up for the price of the house. We always knew that at some point we would get the flooring we wanted; we just didn't think that it would be more than ten years later. With this being the downstairs, this rug was the high-traffic area of the house, and the rugs just couldn't make it another year. When we started looking into what type of flooring we would want and started getting quotes for this, we knew that we were going to have to do it ourselves if we wanted quality. In came Floor and Decor, they offer free classes on how to lay tile flooring in your house, from what materials you will need, to how much material will be required, to even letting you try tiling firsthand. I could recommend it more if you have never tiled, plus YouTube was also a huge help when getting ready for this project. So after taking the class multiple times, we finally thought we were ready to start this project. Who would have thought that the hardest part was going to be agreeing on what tile we wanted? See, we bought this house when oak kitchen cabinets were a big thing, and we could afford to replace the kitchen too, and let's be real, we're probably never going to replace them, so we had to find a tile that would go with those cabinets. I searched all over the internet, getting samples and visiting every store in our area that we could, but still, we couldn't agree on a tile that worked. Finally, I found a wholesale store that had something that we both agreed on, and before I knew it I had dropped over 5K on it and was waiting to go pick it up at a port warehouse.

When the time came to start, my husband took two weeks off from work, and we shipped the kids off to their grandparents' house, as this house was going to be a mess for a while, and having young kids in the house was not an option. Day one was a hard day as we spent the day pulling up all the old flooring in the downstairs. While the baseboards came off quickly, they took half the paint going up the wall with them. The rug came up quick, but I was not prepared for what I found under it, thank god for shop vacs. Then the linoleum floors in the kitchen were up, and let's just say they put up a fight. We had to go to Home Depot and rent a linoleum scraper, which, if you have ever used one it's like wrestling a 200-pound teenage boy around your kitchen floor. While I would like to say I had it, my poor husband was banding out the tiny bit of tile that the builder had installed around the front door and the fireplace. By the time the day was done, we both needed Advil, a shower, food, and bed. To this day, I don't know how we got up and started all over again the next day.

before

during

after

before

after

before

after

Day two had us starting on the tile, after a ton of game planning out how we were going to do this, and where to start. We settled on let's start at the front door, that way when we got to the kitchen we would be pro by then, plus they were full tiles with hardly any cuts to build up again the skill level.

I remember those first few tiles going down and getting so excited. It looked so good, and I knew that we could get this project done if we worked together, each pulling our own weight. I would like to say that laying tile is a quick process, but in reality, it really isn't. The pros make it look so easy. By the end of the first day, we had only made it down the walkway in the living room.

The morning of day three was really hard to get going, as we were both very sore the getting up and down from the floor the going outside in the summer heat to mix mortor and cut tiles was really taking a toll on us but we had a deadline of when it needed to be liveable again as he had only taken two weeks off from work. So on Day three, we got busy with the dining room, which was a huge area to fill with tile, and then ended the day before the special cuts around the steps would start. Finishing there was the right call as we were tired from laying such a large area.

Day four was a big day; it's the day that the angled cuts started. My husband was a rock star when it came to this. He used all his engineering degree to get the cuts just right with little waste, as there was no running to the store to get more tile, as it was a special order. One thing I will say is that when you know you are going to be doing a lot of special cuts, lay out and cut all the times, make sure they are correct before you start to lay them down for good. Because of this day, four was him just getting in front of the stairs done and the walkway into the family room.

At this point, on day five, it was time for me to start the grouting of the floor that was dry and ready to be walked on. While my husband does the tile cutting and laying, me being a gopher. Today, my role started because he doesn't have the patience to do the grout. So starting at the door, I worked my way towards the stairs while he walked the walkway through the family room. We weren't going to tile the whole family room, but just the high-traffic area where you walked to get to the kitchen. One thing I will say about grouting is that it's really hard on your knees and your lower back, and by the end of the day, I could hardly stand up straight.

Day six was the day I shifted gears. Remember, I said that when pulling the baseboards, half the paint came off the wall. Well, all the walls needed to be painted. So while my husband continued on with laying the tile, I started painting the kitchen, hall closet, and downstairs bathroom before he got to those areas. This way I didn't need to be careful about drips and could go fast as he was starting to pick up speed with the next big area of the floor in the kitchen table area. We were really on a roll with the project when we discovered the refrigerator that we moved into the garage while we were working on the project had decided it was done. So, like any good project, our budget took a hit as we were not planning on buying a new fridge but had to. Now that we had a new timeline, we had to finish laying the tile before the frig came in, which was six days away.

The next few days, we worked from 9am to 4pm, trying to get the floors laid and grouted before the frig came, and each day brought us just a little closer to the finish line. The only thing was that each day the progress was hard to see in pictures as cuts take time, and to top it off, my husband had to go into work one day, which meant no progress was made. In the end, we got the floors laid and grouted before the fridge arrived, but the baseboard and paint were left. Once all the details were left, Empire Today came out and laid a new rug in our Living room and Family room. To this day, eleven years later, I'm still in love with how the tile looks.

In the end, the total cost of the project before the new fridge was just about 7K, which is way less than what we were quoted. Just remember, sometimes you have to do things for yourself if you want nice things, plus when you do it yourself, a lot of the time it comes out better than if you hire someone.