New Kitchen Floors

I headed to Secaucus on Monday morning for my first week at my new client. The team is great and, although Secaucus isn't the sexiest location, I love being so close to NYC. I woke up every morning with a run along the Hudson River.

While I was gone, Andrew and Dan took care of removing the remaining cabinets and preparing them to be picked up by Habitat for Humanity. The house was a disaster with the cabinets in the living room, so I was very thankful that they were gone by the time I got home.

Empty kitchen!

Our messy living room 

Habitat taking the cabinets away!

Travel by train is so much less stressful so when I got home Thursday night I was ready to paint the first coat of the ceiling. While I did the painting, Andrew and the cats finished ripping up the old floor so we would be ready to lay cement board Friday night. 

I HATE painting ceilings

Such a mess...

We spent Friday night painting the second coat of the ceiling and laying cement board with Dan, which was a surprisingly easy process. We finished up around 10:30 completely exhausted but ready for my parents to come Saturday morning.

Timmy is the best little helper

We were up early Saturday morning, ready to get started on the floors. My parents arrived around 10am and we were in much better shape than we were when we installed the wood floors. We laid out a row of tiles first and realized the 24x24 tiles would make for an easy day.

Team Tile 2014

Mirk laying tiles

We all took different tiling roles - my mom (Mirk) put thinset on the cement board, Andrew helped lay the tiles, I buttered the back of the tiles, and my dad (Kurty Bird) did the cutting - which means he actually did most of the buttering and I took pictures.

Go Mirky, Go Mirky

I didn't do much of this but we got a picture of when I did

As we finished more and more of the floor, we moved the tile buttering into the living room. My dad was also doing all the cutting with a wet saw in the basement, so the house was a mess.

Doing work in the living room

Kurty Bird wet sawing in the basement

We finished the floor by 3:45, a record for our house projects. The tile needs a day to set before we do the grout, so we rushed off to the tile store to pick a grout color and check out backsplashes.

Floor step 1 complete!

I am planning to wait until the kitchen is installed to select a backsplash, but I love looking around in the meantime. I really like the glass tiles but may end up adding a little color after I see the counters and cabinets together.

Loving the glass circle tiles

On Sunday we were able to lay the grout. We watched a Youtube video on how to do it, so we were basically experts (?) and finished it in an hour. Andrew grouted and I had the fun job of sponging it all up, my fingers were so wrinkly!

The grout leaves a gross residue on the tiles, so I sponged up the floor four times - with the help of Merrill, of course. Poor Mer Mer does NOT like the whole kitchen process so we are trying to give him special attention - lots of treats and catnip.

The best helper

It was a long weekend and our entire bodies hurt but we are ready for the kitchen installation on Friday. We are so happy with how the floors turned out so let's hope we feel the same way about everything else!

This guy, grout face and all, was awesome all weekend. I am very bossy...