Living in a fixer upper and not having an endless budget reminds me of an old Chinese proverb: "Starving man wait long time for roast duck to fly into his mouth." Translation: If you want something done, get off your butt and do it yourself. Hence the reason I decided to use my week off for Thanksgiving break to tile the majority of my house.
The entryway was covered in old, ugly brown mosaic. Since I wanted the new tile to be level, we had to chip the mosaic off of the entryway. It was grueling work for me.
But not so grueling for others.
I know. It's a small space, but trust me, this is harder than it looks. Once we removed the old tile, it was time to start setting the new tile in place.
Actually, laying the tile was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Using a chalk line, we lined it up to the corners and made a large X across the room to find the center. We then laid our first tiles in a cross to set our rows. After that, it was just a mater of filling in all of the rows. I worked everyday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. I made the cuts on an inexpensive tile saw. When it was all said and done, my hands were cracked and dry, but I now have a beautiful floor and I saved myself five dollars for each tile I set (can you believe that's what the flooring store charges for installation?).
I can now add "tiling" to my list of things I can do. And trust me, if I can tile a house, anyone can.
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