September 8, 2013
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Tiling my kitchen on my birthday
I painted the cabinets this week, and decided today to install the tile backsplash before moving all the stuff back in. I went to Floor & Decor and found rough-cut Carrara marble squares for $2 a one-foot sheet! They have occasional green hints that I think will work with the green counter tops.
I started with the back wall by the fridge because it’s awkward to get to. Fortunately it didn’t require any cutting except around the outlet. The trim strip on the left edge is cut from a marble tile. (Sorry, photo is fuzzy.)
Next I started from the window by the sink. This required some cutting around the windowsill and smoothing the corner tile pieces. The edge pieces at the top are strips from a marble tile. You can see how rough-cut the marble is. I normally wouldn’t have chosen it but the price was too good to pass up and I’m selling the house anyway.
I worked back to the corner. Outlets and switches can be simple or tricky, depending on where they are. This one only needed cuts at the top and bottom. The tiles lined up perfectly with the sides of the box.
This outlet, on the other hand, required cuts on all four sides. Sometimes if you’re lucky you happen to have the scraps you need.
When I got to the back corner, I had a gap of not quite half an inch to fill.
To cut strips, you flip the sheet over so the mesh holds it flat. It’s tricky, though; sometimes the marble splits while you’re cutting, and sometimes it sags and your cut ends up angled.
Here’s another view of the sheet on the saw. I invested in a good tile saw some years ago because I did a lot of tiling in my handyman business.
This cut came out well.
Here is the sink corner with the gap filled in with little pieces.
And here is the section of kitchen I tiled today. There are two more sections to do, one this big and one about a third as much.
I’ll need to grout it tomorrow or Monday. I think it will look great.
Comments (30)
Very natural looking marble mosaics, looks like carrera stone. Against the black granite should look very nice.
Wow! That’s a lot of work. It looks great and I’m looking forward to hearing more about how it all works out.
Happy birthday!
Thank you.
It looks beautiful! And you are selling it?? I wouldn’t want to leave a kitchen so pretty!
Well, that’s the plan. We don’t really need a place this big, although I hate to give up the workshop out back. And unfortunately I’ve gotten into a lot of debt in the past year or so and don’t have prospects to begin to dig myself out for at least a year. We should be able to sell the place for a good profit, and get something cheaper and closer to my job.
Great job!!!
I love it! 
Happy Birthday to you!!! (I’m singing…be glad you CAN’T hear me!!!)
HUGS!!!
PS…I’d give you a MINI, but I has none.
Thank you, Carolyn. The faces add up to the equivalent of at least one mini.
Wow, looks like a lot of work! Like the way it looks.
Happy birthday! Hope you have a great one.
Thank you. I did a three foot section today. Tomorrow I hope to grout it.
Thank you. Tiling was actually a great way to spend the day. I think it’s one of the most satisfying things I do.
Looking good!
Thank you.
it looks great now
happy bellybutton birthday!
I don’t think I could do that myself. Too much for me.
Tiling is actually fairly easy, but people find it intimidating or they just don’t want to do something that complicated. It’s easier than a lot of sewing, I think.
An especially nice and appropriate thing to do on your birthday. Each careful decision and cut reminds you to thank the Lord you’ve been blessed to develop skills, many skills.
hey, I did a tile floor once in the US (here i use the almost 2″ thick foot-square tiles) Anyway, my partner had (wrongly) told the customer that I was experienced. Ha, I had the book open out in the van ‘How to tile a floor-for dummies’, and referred to it a hundred times.
Luckily, the clients were total slobs, and with ketchup, jelly, and ??? stains on the floor after a few days no one could even see the discrepancies I’d worried about.
Happy Birthday, Mr Roadkill.
Tiling is maybe the closest thing to art I get to do. I really enjoy it. It’s very forgiving, for the most part. I did a job three or four years ago that came out horrible. It was 18″ squares, and there was no way I could get them level. The tiles tipped this way and that. Fortunately it was a rental, not someone’s home, or I would have felt terrible.
I learned from an old Puerto Rican Jehovah’s Witness in Ft Worth, actually. His knees were too bad to do it himself, but he gave me a lot of pointers and also taught me to lay laminate. The big downside was when he insisted we have a Bible study. I learned a lot about JWs. Very strange theology. All kinds of answers to questions I had never even thought of asking, like why was it took so long until the Holy Spirit came after the Ascension. According to him, it took that long to travel to heaven and back.
Tim, I had posted a comment on this entry earlier today. But I don’t see it here. I wonder where it went?
http://zsa_md.xanga.com
I only see your Neil Diamond comment in my comments page. I suspect the comment dropped into the cyber void. Xanga is a weird place right now.
Alicia sends greetings. She thinks of you often.
I think the tile will look great. I can’t wait to see it finished… And wasn’t there a birthday in there too? Now I’m not sure. peace always
Thank you. Yes, it was my birthday. We celebrated it two weeks ago before my wife left for Colombia and while my sister was visiting, so it was fine not to have a party on the day itself.
Haha. Yes – it’s in the title. Happy Birthday!
That is truly a labor of love for you to choose to do it on your birthday. I hope you enjoyed it and that you got to celebrate with a kiss from your lovely wife later in the day (or a few speckled throughout the process hehe) Happy Birthday.
Thank you!
My wife is in Colombia right now, which makes for lonely days but it’s easier to work on the house without bothering her. She hates messes. I’m hoping to get a lot done before she returns on the 18th.
When we arez temprarilty alone the best is to work and more to make work of art. Bravo,Tim
In frienfdship
Michel
please , read : When we are temporarily alone …. Ah:! those typping mistakes!
I had to add my new xanga/wordpress url to the “web page” line on the profile editor to make my name clickable!!
The tile looks absolutely wonderful even without grout!!
Ah yes, two beardless boys on bicycles wearing white shirts, offering answers to questions we never dreamed would need to be asked. Witnesses: I see them and run hide under the bed.
Them’s Mormons, dude. The JWs are usually older people with briefcases and umbrellas. I avoid all of them.
Very nice tile work! Happy Belated Birthday too!
Thank you.