Our Reports

Sami's Report - THE DIG

For several days I worked on staining the deck, but then it rained hard, so I needed to do an inside project. So, I tackled the job of removing the flooring in the kitchen entryway. It was this floor (also in the kitchen) that was the primary cause of the whole remodel. The light beige linoleum had worn through in many places. It was a real eyesore.

I researched on the Web how to remove linoleum. I assembled pry bars, scrapers and hammers, plus a few power tools and went to work. First, up came the beige linoleum that we have lived with for the last 26 years. Guess what? Another layer of linoleum was underneath; brown and gold. More prying. More digging. Surprise! another layer of linoleum was underneath. This time a pink speckled pattern with sparkles. There were two layers of metal strips along the door jams. Below all of that was a layer of Masonite held down with long, thin staples. It was like an archeological dig, going down in time to see various plastics, papers, glues, colors and designs. I encountered dirt and pet hair lodged in place by years of occupants.  

In the end, because the bottom layer was held in place with staples, and not glue, I didn't have to use a heat gun or solvents to get the glue up. That was a blessing.

Don's Report -  THE TILE "PG" 

‘PG’ is not a movie rating or a condition of pregnancy. In this context it means "pre-grout."

Early on a key vision for the kitchen was to have a ceramic tile counter back-splash, with a mural behind the range as a highlight. Originally the plan was to purchase a mural complete, but that became problematic when the chosen artist fell ill and couldn’t produce it. Alternatives were explored, and we decided to create our own mural using beautiful Pratt and Larson bas-relief tiles of vegetables and animals, with matching field tile along the rest of the counter. Sami created the design and I created the mechanical layout on the computer. Then, in December, an expensive purchase was made from Pratt and Larson.

For several months we focused on other rooms, then worked our way back to the kitchen. It was therefore a momentous occasion to finally be able to utilize the lovely tile we had purchased last year.

First, I laid out all the tile on the wall in pencil, to verify the design worked. I had to do some fine tuning to optimize grout lines with switches, outlets, and edges. I laid the tile on the sink side first, as it was simpler, and a good way to get back up to speed doing tile work. Then I moved to the range side, starting with the mosaic. The picture tiles especially were somewhat irregular, so I worked from the center, bottom of the mosaic and adjusted for irregularities as I progressed outward. The mural worked out without any problems.

The last piece (the ‘golden spike’) shows how small some of the detail tile pieces had to be.

By the way, I think I have gotten my money’s worth out of the little Ryobi tile saw because, prior to this project, I used it in the upstairs bathroom and the brick walkway around the front of the house.

Once the tile was all installed, all the electrical switches and outlets had to be shimmed out to compensate for the tile thickness. The electrical boxes were supposed to be installed with the tile in mind, but it didn’t happen. There are handy shims that snap together like Lego’s that make it easy to fix.

I chose a snail and Sami chose a mouse, to be creatures which have escaped from the mural.

The next step is to grout the tile, but first I must seal the tile itself, as it has a ‘crackle’ glaze and, if not sealed, will allow discoloration when the grout is applied. So my next job is to experiment with sealer and grout on a test sample.