We got Floors!

Well, we sort of have floors. The kitchen is coming along as quickly as a three legged turtle walks backwards slowly but surely.

Recently, we've taken on two major projects. And by we I mean my dad and J. So the first thing was the electrical work in the kitchen. The entire kitchen had to be rewired. And J apparently is also an electrician now, because in two days, it was finished. Impressive in my book. He is a responsible business man by day (and evening), and an electrician/kitchen builder by night and weekend. I married the best guy ever.

Here is all the wiring of the walls.. and the very very empty kitchen. Oh, see that floor? Maybe asbestos. We actually don't know 100%... but guess what happens when your wife thinks it MIGHT be asbestos and doesn't want you to get lung cancer??

Yep, that's right, you get a professional grade respirator mask. And we weren't even touching the asbestos, just covering it up. So J used this, even though it mayyyybe was not necessary. But better safe than sorry. This is how much J loved this part of my neurotic personality:

So they quickly covered up the asbestos with some sort of "magic board" that apparently makes the surface smooth for tiling. Or stone-ing as it were. So.... this is in the process.

Hello to the ugliest floor in the world. Old school grandparents tile, and some cement to seal off the wood, and then some peel and stick tiles to even out the level. Wow. This looks sooo awful. But, it all needed to be done. By using the peel and stick tiles, we had a completely even surface to work with. They are uber cheap and well worth the quick stickiing to make it work.

In process using Hardie Backer board.

Most of the floor finished in the board.

Dad laying out the flooring to see how it will look (THANKS DAD!!)

After that part was finished, we watched the UCONN game (again, Go Huskies!) Today after brunch with J's friend Chops who was in from Texas, we went back to work... J did most of the work but I was in charge of clearing the thin-set and the clean up of anything on the tiles. 

We decided to go with a tile or slate on the kitchen floor because our wood in the eating area is old and we could never match it well. We bought the flooring at Tile Mart of Delaware.After perusing the racks and the examples for awhile, we couldn't find anything we loved. I wandered back to the "Clearance" area and it was as if a light was shining down from heaven. Okay, it was just recessed lighting shining down. But directly onto these dark chargoal grey tiles that were rough and gritty feeling- perfect for the kitchen. And perfect color too. And the very very best part of all? We totally expected and were willing to pay $4-$8 per square foot of tile. This tile? 99 cents. Ding ding ding! I win the award. We were totally thrilled with my find! And brought it home that night.

So today, J went at it... and did the best job ever. We also realize the hop-scotch pattern works entirely better than straight lines of tile. Better because if you are 1/16 of an inch off, you can't tell. And better because it looks cute. Who do you think picked out each of those positive aspects? You are correct if you guessed I like it because it looks "cute" and J is pleased that his accuracy can be slliiiiiightly off.

He looks good even when he's doing manual labor. And look how nice the tiles look. J went through one big bucket of thinset before calling it a day today. This is where we are so far:

Here it is against the hardwood floors. I think it looks fantastic. I am so excited about going from demo to reno FINALLY. We are building it up!! We have about a month and a half before our deadline of this being finished, so we better pick up the pace. But this is some good movement. Sorry for the rando trash can in the picture here.... 

Charcoal grey, you've won my heart.