Aerogarden Update #4

Just a quickie post today!

Look how big this parsley has gotten in just a week!

Much bigger than last week, huh? :)

Tiling the Fireplace

Well, it turns out I didn’t get a chance to take enough pictures to do a full tutorial and it turns out that this experience did not at all make me an expert to post a full tutorial. Tiling this fireplace was a lot more stressful and panicky than I expected. :) So instead of a tutorial, you will be getting a  journal of our actual, non-perfect adventure into tiling.

Mixing the mortar wasn’t bad at all. Here’s Grandpa showing off its perfect consistency.

We used this metal tile trim around the fireplace to give the tiles (and our cut edges!) a clean finish. It really came in handy when our tiles started sliding down the wall. :)

Even though we fully understand gravity, we started with the top center of the fireplace because I wanted to make sure that we got the pattern of the subway tile centered, since I figured that’d be the first place your eye would really be drawn to. If we had used a more random mosaic tile (and something smaller, where an extra inch of tile here or there wouldn’t be noticeable) we could have just started from the bottom and worked our way up like smart people.

Of course the tile began sliding down the wall. I knew it would, I had read it so many times, but somehow I was still panickingly surprised and unprepared for it. Thank goodness we decided to use that metal edging! We propped the whole thing up with a 4-foot level and a piece of trim Grandpa cut to 4 feet.

At this point, we clearly needed a humongous coffee break.

Next, we needed to start work on the sides – making sure that the pattern would line up with the top and the bottom.

Because our cutting guide on the wet saw only went out to 7 5/8” and our 2”x4” tiles were on 12” x 12” sheets, we had to figure out how to free hand cut the tiles in half. Grandpa lined up the full tile that we wanted to keep against the blade (it was noisy and the edges got shaved a little, but nothing that you notice) thereby using the full tile as the guide to cut the next tile in half.

Here’s a picture of our cutting mark – to help us visualize.

Once that was done, we planned on having the tile extend about 8” on either side of the fireplace, but as I just said, the cutting guide only went out to 7 5/8”, and we wanted that guide to make sure we got straight cuts. So we went back to the fireplace and measured. We determined that (on the right side) we’d need 6 5/8” of tile to line us up with the existing tiles, so we went with it. (On the left side, it was 6 3/8”. Thank goodness we measured both sides. You can kind of tell, (I could tell that day, that’s why I measured again), but in general it’s not too noticeable, so we stuck with it. :)

Then, with some more measuring, we realized that we’d have an inch or so between the last full tile and the floor (which would need room for grout lines). We decided that instead of making what seemed like a million small cuts, we’d make a mid-project run to Lowes to buy some 3/4” x 6” border tiles that I remembered they had. Those tiles were a lifesaver! We used them as the bottom row of tiles.

(They also came in handy in another mis-measured spot that I’m choosing not to point out to everyone.) ;)

After that, we were ready to finish tiling the remaining 3 sides of the fireplace. It was stressful but really fine. The tiles kept sliding down as we worked our way down to the bottom; we had to work hard pushing the tiles up to get everything to fit where it was supposed to. Let me say, thank goodness for the person who invented tile spacers. They were another lifesaver! They were so so so helpful.

The bottom and the last side were much easier since we weren’t fighting gravity with the tile, though I did end up messing up the pattern a bit at the end. Oops! I should never tell, but it bugs me, and I didn’t notice until the mortar was dry. Boo. That last side though, was when I realized what tiling really should be like – when you work from the bottom up, it’s much more bearable!

Anyway, it’s done and I’m happy.

And we learned a lot:

Even though the mortar bag tells you to only mix up what you can use in 10 or 15 minutes, and that’s true, they also tell you to let the mortar slake for 10 minutes, which makes the mortar really workable for 20-25 minutes. We found this to be true and helpful, but not until the end. Before that, I was so worried about having the mortar dry up on us, that I was working too quickly, and the mortar wasn’t really set up yet. I think that’s one reason our tiling was sliding down so much (and working against gravity of course.)

Really, work from the bottom up. Plan ahead so you can. Now of course, the part over the top fireplace would have not had support underneath it in any case, so from that I learned to avoid having a fireplace be your first tiling experience.

Level the substrate before you start tiling. These seems super obvious, our cement backer board wasn’t that out of whack, and I thought I could just do it as I went along (adding more mortar underneath some spots, smoothing others out). But since we tiled the top, and then took a break, I didn’t realize where some of the uneven spots were until we started adding tile, and by then the mortar under the previously set tile was dry and therefore unable to be moved. Boo.

I also learned that although smaller tiles can be more expensive, and some may look trendy, I can see why they are popular with first time tilers. A lot of our measuring mistakes and issues wouldn’t have been so bad if we were using smaller tiles.

Again, though, I am happy. :)

I’m working on finishing the wall around it, and I’ll be back with more on that when I’m done.

(Even though my tile job is far from perfect, I’m sure it’d be worse if I hadn’t gotten tiling info from Young House Love and The Floor Elf.) :)

Tile!

Things I learned tiling:

A fireplace is not the best place to learn how to do tile. Start with something easier, like a kitchen backsplash?

Also, maybe using subway tile on your first tiling job isn’t the best idea either. 1” mosaic tile may be trendy, but it would have been easier!

But the fireplace is tiled and I love it! I will post more about our tiling experience when my muscles recover.

Next steps are to mud and tape the surrounding fireplace wall, grout the tile, and touch up any black paint on the fireplace before I finally get to take down the red rosin paper and clean up to see what this project really looks like! Then build and paint the mantel surround, and this project will be done. :)

I’ll keep posting on our progress/experiences!

Tile Day!

Oh man! Today is tile day!!

I’m so excited. We’ve got a wet saw. We’ve got tile. I bought just about every kind of trowel that looked like it could have anything to do with our project, so we wouldn’t be smack-dab in the middle of thinsetting (is that a verb?) and realize we really needed another tool.

Grandpa’s on his way over. I’ve got the area covered with red rosin paper.

I thought I should start to get rid of the hideous gold before we tiled because I’m using high heat spray paint to cover it. (There’s a brush on, but I figured I’d get a smoother coat this way.) (And I really can not figure out how to get the doors out of/off this fireplace insert. I've googled it, I've looked at ours, I've tried brute strength. I just think ours won't come off. Maybe that feature's on the the more "upscale" versions of fireplace inserts.) :)

So it’s looking a little messy now, but there’s no more gold! I ended up really spraying the whole thing (there was also leftover paint and gunk on the fireplace from the wall we took down that I couldn’t scrape off, so I just sprayed that, too) because I think the new paint’s finish is more matte than the original fireplace finish, so I want everything to look even.

I will keep you updated as we tile! Wish us luck!

Aerogarden Update #3

I finally have some parsley! It's still little, but it's got parsley-shaped leaves! Woohoo! The basil is still a little mound - I've done a bit of pruning on it, to hopefully shape it into a leafy, bushy plant. And the cilantro is humongous! I keep pruning/using it to avoid having to raise the grow-light lamp, since the baby parsley and basil still need it low. This Aerogarden is seriously a fun endeavor in my kitchen!

In other news, hopefully I'll be actually tiling soon! I'll keep you posted!

More Tile Choices (again!)

(I hope you don’t mind being on this living room journey with me, watching/reading as I go through the decision making process…I do have some before and after posts of other things in the house to put together for you, but this is what I'm in the middle of right now, so it’s on my mind all the time!)

Well, apparently being "settled on a final tile decision" really means nothing, because of course I've changed my mind. Brandon says if you're reading my blog, these changes of mind will just help you get to know me, because apparently this is what I'm like.

So even though I was loving the octagon tile, I just keep going back to doing some kind of subway tile. Either the cute 1"x2" mosaic-type subway tile, or the slightly bigger 2"x4" subway tile.

Lowe's has white, 2"x4" white subway tile, in stock, for about $3 a square foot. Let me tell you, the price is right and the style is right.  I just feel like the subway tile is a look I won't get tired of and will be pretty versatile!

from Lowes

I know the picture’s kind of hard to see, being white on white. :) Here’s a great image of white subway tile with gray grout – in a kitchen, but you get the idea.

White subway tile with gray grout from here

So, we’d have to get and learn how to use a wet saw, which will be a fun adventure. But luckily, learning on inexpensive tile is less stressful than learning on pricey tile!

I’m also wondering if I want to just go for that Lowe’s subway tile, or if I want to take a trip out to the tile outlet to find something that looks like this:

Gray mosaic subway tile from Caitlin Creer Interiors

And, in decorating/fabric news, now that I’ve decided to keep that rug, the fabric and art choices I made here might not really work any more :) but I found this great light blue chevron fabric via Pinterest, and I feel like it’d be a great accent fabric, right?

from here

Yum, man I hope so! I know I just keep pulling things I love and throwing them onto this blog, and I know a lot of them are going to get nixed, but I hope you love them along with me anyway! :)

Little Living Room Update

Valerie and I had a major shopping and decision making day yesterday, and then I did even more shopping on my own. Whew! Exhausting! But I’m excited with some of the progress and decisions we made.

We decided to stick with the rug. :) So it’s installed and in place. We moved around some of the end tables, and decided what new end tables we’re looking for. (A round one for the corner in between the 2 couches, and a mini one for my side of the couch, next to the fireplace.)  And even though the curtains were my original inspiration, we took them down. :) In their place will go some white or off-white sheers, and then real curtain panels, to be determined. We discussed other small changes, like lamps – a few of which were bought, but didn’t work out, so were promptly returned – that will happen after more of the major changes. All things in their proper order. :)

I think we settled on a final tile decision, which is a huge thing! Although I’m still wavering a bit between these and the penny tiles, these tiles from Lowes might win. They’re fun but a little less busy, they’re cheaper :), and in stock. I thought they were a little bathroom-y at first, but there will only be 6-8” of them, and they’re growing on me.

I also started checking out mantel kits which is getting me really excited about this fireplace!

And, I think we’re replacing the ultra-modern wavy Ikea track lighting with something more like this:

Taylor Track Lighting

I’m excited, but there’s a lot of work ahead!