A Little Bit of Subway Tile

Last Sunday we started tiling the backsplash with subway tile.  Since we are using a premixed tub of mastic to attach the tiles to the wall we don't have to do it all in one sitting.  This makes tiling much more enjoyable when you know you can just stop whenever you feel like it.  

First we laid down paper over the new counter to keep it clean and then we sanded the wall.  Supposedly the tiles have a hard time sticking to painted drywall but roughing up the surface helps.  The subway tiles we bought are self spacing but we used tile spacers to lift the first row up off the counter.  This line will get filled with caulk instead of grout.  

We have a tile scorer and snapper, but we discovered that it made pretty ugly cuts in the subway tile.  We did use a coping saw to cut the tiles to go around the outlets, but the outlet covers will hide those cuts so it doesn't matter what they look like.  We are going to finish all the tiling that doesn't require any cuts that will show and then either borrow or rent a wet saw to cut the remaining tiles.  We also had to buy longer screws for the outlet boxes so the plugs can sit over the top of the tile.  

It only took a couple of hours to do all of (except the tiles we still need to cut) the backsplash on the wall behind the sink.  

I was hoping to be able to do the tiling on the wall behind the stove some evening this week, but I managed to cut my finger really badly chopping onions on Sunday night.  I had to go to the emergency room and everything.  In the interest of keeping my wound clean and dry I think I'll need to wait a while before doing any more tiling.  

Kitchen 90% Done!

Since the last time I posted anything a lot has happened with the kitchen.  Every weekend and a good chunk of our weekday evenings for the last month and a half have been spent doing something related to the kitchen.  I thought after we finished painting the cabinets, we would get to take a break and appreciate our hard work before starting the next phase of the remodel.  Apparently I was mistaken.  Updating one thing in the kitchen makes all the other unupdated things look really bad in comparison.  And Nate wanted to start the tiling ASAP.  (Warning: This post has lots and lots of pictures)

We did the tiling over Presidents Day Weekend, which made sense because tiling really takes three full days.  

We used 1" hex tiles again, which we are fairly comfortable with after tiling the bathroom floor.  But this time we used black and white American Olean tiles which had to be special ordered at Lowes.  It took a full (9AM until 11PM) day just to lay out and cut the tiles to fit.  This was me very tired at the very end of the day.  We numbered all the sheets so we could easily find the correct sheet when tiling the next day.  

Because our subfloor was in good shape in the kitchen and we didn't want the tile to end up being higher than the wood floor in the living room, we used this thin skin underlayment stuff instead of cement board.  It is just a roll of plastic coated paper that you lay down with the stickiest glue ever.  When we bought it, we didn't realize that you had to also lay a very thin layer of mortar over the top of it and let it dry before you could start tiling.  Waiting for that stuff to dry took way longer than anticipated, but once it did, the tiling went fairly quickly.  

The next day was grouting and buffing.  

One thing that made it turn out much better than the bathroom tiling job was that we took off not just the baseboards, but the moldings around each of the three door ways.  Here Harris is inspecting the competed tiling before we put the moldings back on.  There were definitely a few places where the spacing between the tiles was either too wide or to narrow, but most of those are behind the fridge or behind the stove and won't be visible.  We also luckily caught a couple of places where the pattern of black and white tiles were messed up before the mortar completely set up.  If we hadn't fixed those places they would probably have driven us crazy for the next 20 years. 

We were extra excited that once we finished tiling we could move the former wardrobe/entertainment center we bought off craigslist and painted and turned into a pantry into the corner in the kitchen.  It was really really heavy and it took Nate and I an incredibly frustrating half a day to just move it with forearm forklifts from the garage into the backyard.   After I refused to move it any further we got our friend Travis to help Nate move it the rest of the way into the kitchen.  Once it was in, it was clear that it was too big for the space.  I think we didn't take into account the molding at the top or that with a surge protector (we wanted to move the toaster oven and coffee maker into it) it wouldn't be able to go all the way up against the wall.  It made our kitchen feel tiny.  So the next weekend we got another friend, Jade, to help move it back to the garage again where it is still sitting to this day taking up room waiting to be resold on craigslist. 

The next thing we did was get a new stove and venting microwave, but I don't have a picture of those until the final reveal pictures so you'll just have to imagine.  We got both from Lowes.  The delivery people hooked up the stove for us with no problems and we love it.  It has five burners and there is no space between the grates so you can just move pans back and forth between burners without having to lift them up.  Also it is way more powerful and the quick boil burner boils water in probably half the time of our old stove.  Our fridge and dishwasher, which are both pretty new and in good shape are black, but we wanted to get stainless steel for the stove and microwave.  We got ones that had significant portions of black on them along with the stainless steal so they don't seem completely mismatched from the fridge and dishwasher.  

The microwave wasn't as simple as the stove.  First we got one that we realized was going to hang down so far that we couldn't fit a large pot on the stove.  So we returned it and got a slightly smaller one.  Lowes was going to charge us $100 to install the microwave, which seemed crazy for a less than $200 microwave.  So we decided to install it ourselves.  The instillation seemed like it went fairly smoothly, until a couple days later when we concluded that the microwave just wasn't venting properly.  So we had to take it down and fiddle with the tube that connects the top of the microwave to the exterior vent.  It was blocking the flap on the top of the microwave vent from opening.  After fixing that, it works great.  

We ordered grey silestone quartz countertops from Home Depot.  They were having a 10% off sale and our kitchen doesn't have a ton of countertop space so they ended up not being all that expensive.  We were originally going to have the Home Depot people remove our old sink and countertops, but for some reason they were going to have to do a lead paint test that would cost $400 before removing our countertops because our house was built before 1975.  But if we removed them ourselves we wouldn't have to pay that fee or the fee to have the countertops removed and hauled away.  

We had a plumber unhook the plumbing and then we just took out the sink and the countertops.  There were just a few screws attaching the countertops to the  cabinets and after removing them, they came off really easily.  We listed the sink and countertops as free on craigslist and within 15 min. someone came and picked up the sink and in a couple hours someone got the countertops.  Amazing! I like alley furniture and general free stuff more than probably the next guy, but what someone is going to do with our old formica countertops is beyond me. 

The next day they came and installed the countertops.  I love them.  We got the undermount sink on Overstock.com for only about $100.  I love being able to just wipe stuff into the sink. 

The plumber came back the next day to hook up our new fancy faucet (also from Overstock.com).  There was actually a manufacturer's defect with the faucet so it was leaking from the top of the sprayer, but the plumber fixed it with just an extra washer.  

Here are some final reveal pictures of the kitchen in all its glory.  

Including the stove and microwave.

Also, to replace the giant cabinet, we bought a hoosier cabinet off ebay.  We painted it the same white as our cabinets, which probably ruined its value. But, the finish wasn't in great shape and now I think it looks great with our kitchen.  It doesn't hold quite as much as that other cabinet would have, but we were still able to get the coffee maker behind the tambour doors and will be able to fit a toaster oven if we get a smaller one.  We rearranged everything in our kitchen cabinets so most of our food is in the hoosier cabinet and we can now fit some of our larger kitchen appliances in the kitchen cabinets instead of in a crate in the dining room.  

The only thing we have left to do in the kitchen is install the subway tile backsplash and do some touch up painting.  We haven't ever done wall tile before so I'm sure that will pose its own problems, but it is nice to be in the home stretch on this kitchen. 

I know this post is already super long, but I wanted to show some pictures of a few other things that we have changed in our house while we were updating the kitchen.  

 

We replaced the ceiling fan in the dining room with this enamel warehouse pendant lamp from Fab.com.

 

We have lots of extra room for artwork in the front hallway now that the extra door to my office and the window into the kitchen are drywalled up. 



And we finally got a real door on the now only doorway to my office.  Also we replaced the brass lever door handles with these white porcelain door knobs on the doors to my office the two bedrooms and the bathroom.  Now Harris can't open the doors anymore.  Unfortunately he can still open the exterior door to the back yard and will let himself and Flynn our if we don't keep it locked.   That is a project for another day. 

Kitchen Remodel: Phase One Complete

Ever since we bought this house, just about two years ago, we have been planning on redoing the kitchen.  The problem is the kitchen has a lot of issues and tackling them all at once seemed like too daunting of a task.  We also didn't want to end up with a half torn up kitchen for extended periods of time.  So we decided to break the kitchen remodel down into phases, each of which could be done fairly quickly and look decent in-between phases.  

Phase One: replace the boob light fixtures, paint the cabinets white, attach pulls and knobs to the cabinets and paint the kitchen grey. 

Phase Two: get the extra pass through window in the kitchen dry walled over, tile the floor with black and white hex tiles, install free standing pantry, get a new stove and replace exhaust hood with venting microwave.

Phase Three: get grey quartz countertops and stainless steal undermount sink installed and tile backsplash with white subway tiles. 

As of today we have completed all of phase one and part of phase two.  

As a reminder, here are some pictures of the before.  As usual I didn't take good before pictures so most of these are from when we first looked at the house before we bought it. 

The cabinets were the basic light oak cabinets, though I don't think they were original to the house since the house was built in 1955.  They must have been put in in the early 90s or late 80s.  They were in pretty horrible shape since there were no handles so you had to grab the edge of the cabinet with wet hands to open them.  Naturally there was some pretty bad water damage, especially under the sink.

These two lights were the last of the boob shaped lights in the house.

At some point in our house's past, someone opened up these three windows in the kitchen.  They don't really serve any function, except that that do make the originally very closed off galley kitchen much lighter and brighter and open to the living room.  It is hard to see in this picture, but the third window is directly to the right of you as you walk in the front door.  We couldn't really figure out what the point of this window was since it just allowed any visitors to look directly into our messy kitchen as soon as they walked into the house.  There is also a corner of the kitchen, next to that window, that doesn't have any cabinets and is just unused space.  Our kitchen also doesn't have any pantry space and we really wanted to use this space for a pantry, however with the window, you can't fit a tall cupboard.  

We bought a paint sprayer off craigslist, after we found out that renting a paint sprayer from home depot for one day costs almost as much as buying a used one.  We took off all the cabinet doors and drawer faces, sanded them and sprayed them with the paint sprayer. Then we painted the remaining cabinet boxes by hand.  Here are some lovely pictures of our kitchen torn apart during the process. 

Also from craigslist we got this wardrobe which will be our future pantry.  It originally was an entertainment center and was dark blue.  So we had to reconfigure the inside and install shelves.  Nate sprayed it white at the same time he sprayed the cabinet doors. 

Here are some after pictures.  I got four of these vintage school house lights on eBay.  Two went in the kitchen and one went in the front hall way.  I'm not sure what we are going to do with the fourth, but I'm sure it will find a place at some point. 

 

I think the cabinets look so much better white.  They really make the whole kitchen seem so much brighter.  And after painting the walls grey, they really stand out.

 We got these drawer pulls from harney hardware for only $1.11 a piece.

 And the same knobs that we used in the bathroom from amazon for $1.49 a piece.

Lastly, we got the window in the corner of the kitchen drywalled up.  That was the best part because we hired someone to do it.  It is amazing how fast professionals work.  Saving  money by doing stuff yourself is very satisfying, but saving your sanity by hiring someone to do the complicated things is worth every penny.  Once we tile the floor, as part of phase two, we can put the cabinet that is taking up too much room in the garage here, and we will have so much more storage space in the kitchen. 

 

Denim Whale

I had been wanting to make this denim whale softie ever since I saw it on pinterest.

Source: valaanvillapaita.blogspot.com via krakencrafts on Pinterest

There is a tutorial for it on the original creator's blog.  But, the tutorial is in Finnish and there isn't a pattern, just process photos.  Also it looked pretty complicated and well above my sewing skill level. So understandably, I forgot about making it and just looked longingly at the photo on my pin board every once in a while.

My cousin is having a baby girl and is due later this month.  This will be the first of the new generation in my family (we aren't exactly prolific breeders) and since she has most everything she will need for the baby from hand me downs from friends, I wanted to make her something.

Lately, I seem to only pull out the screen printing supplies when there is a baby shower or one year old's birthday I need to come up with a present for.  So I made a couple of onesies with an octopus and and blowfish screen printed on them.  I also wanted to make cat softie with a similar pattern that I have made dog and fox softies for other babies.  When I looked through my fabric stash I was out of the fabric that I wanted to use.  I have vowed to use up a good chunk of my fabric stash before buying any new fabrics.  I did find the legs from one of my old pairs of jeans that I had saved for some reason.  So it seemed like the right time to try to tackle the denim whale.

It wasn't simple, and definitely didn't turn out exactly like I wanted it to, but I'm pretty happy with it.  And now that I have a newspaper pattern for the pieces, I think if I tried to make another one it would be a lot easier and might come out even better. 

It is a very ocean themed and kind too blue for a girl group of presents, but I think she'll like them. And I am very proud of myself for tackling the whale. 

Sunprint Pillow

On designsponge I saw this tutorial for a photogram wreath wall hanging.  The tutorial uses inkodye, a photosensitive dye to make an image of an evergreen wreath on a piece of fabric to use as a wall hanging.  As a kid, I remember making lots of sunprints of various plants on sunprint paper but I had never seen the process on fabric.  I immediately bought the smallest jar of the blue ink from the manufacturer's website.  Of course, a few days later, they were selling larger bottles of it on Fab.  I wish I had gotten the larger bottle because the process really uses a lot of the dye.  There are all sorts of amazing things I could have made with this stuff, but I liked the image on designsponge so much, and wasn't feeling too creative, so I stuck pretty closely with the tutorial.  

I painted the dye onto a piece of unbleached canvas fabric which I binder-clipped to a piece of cardboard.  Since evergreen clippings are not so easily come by in Southern California, I collected California poppy leaves from the garden and arranged them into the shape of a wreath.  When I made Easter/Passover eggs this past spring, I discovered that California poppies made the best leaf impressions of anything in our yard.  In the tutorial they just pinned down the branches onto the cardboard, but mentioned that you could hold them down with glass for a clearer impression.  I took the glass out of a picture frame and placed it over the leaves.  The glass didn't lie completely flat over the leaves because of the binder-clips however. If I did this again I would use something else to hold the fabric in place over the cardboard so I could hopefully get a clearer impression. 

When you paint the dye on the fabric it is almost clear, but after a few mins in the sun it starts to turn purple.  In the designsponge tutorial they weren't super clear about which picture was from which stage in the process and in the comments people were asking how they got this purple colored dye since inkodye only comes in red, orange and blue.  This is just the initial color that the blue ink turns in the sun.  I left mine in the sun for about 16 mins.  After taking the whole sandwich apart I washed the fabric in the washing machine twice to get out all the excess dye.  After washing it it turns blue.  

I sewed the sunprinted fabric into a pillow, using plain unbleached canvas for the back and an Ikea pillow insert as stuffing and gave it to my Mom as a Christmas present.  

Curry Plant Wreath

Curry Plant Wreath, a photo by krakencrafts on Flickr.

My curry plant (which looks like rosemary but smells like curry) was getting out of control so I used the cuttings to make a wreath with a wire coat hanger and some floral wire.

Baby Pumpkins

Baby Pumpkins, a photo by krakencrafts on Flickr.

I've had quite a few volunteer squash plants pop up in the garden this year. Most of them turned out to be butternut squash, but it looks like this one, that is growing in a pot underneath a tomato plant, is a baby pumpkin. I did have one decorative baby pumpkin last fall that I ended up tossing in the compost after it started to rot. I guess this is one of its progeny.