Labor Day projects. And daddy longlegs.
Our dining room floor is no longer aged, bare plywood. Over the weekend, hubby and I (with help from the kids) laid vinyl tile. This entailed more than just the tile: we also had to lay more plywood and level the floor with a cement-like compound. Then we painted it, and finally laid the tile, much of which had to be painstakingly cut to an exact fit.
It was a bit of a challenge, since the room is joined to the kitchen and the tile we used in the kitchen had been discontinued by the manufacturer. Let’s pause for a moment and imagine the look on my face when the guy at Home Depot told me this. After momentary panic and an extensive internet search, we came up with a plan. We bought the last box of matching tile along with 7 boxes of unmatching tile, got creative and thought artsy thoughts, and here is what we came up with:
The photo just shows the darker tile in the kitchen and the results of our artsy creative thoughts where the two floors meet. Do you just love the way we laid some of the tiles on a diagonal? Did we succeed in making it look like we really wanted to use two different tiles? Like we were much too interesting to be satisfied with a uniform floor in an open layout? As if we wanted to use the patterns in the flooring to subtly define the separate areas of our home without using walls to break up the open feeling? Are you buying any of this?
Although we did burn up more brain cells than we planned, I’m glad that we were forced to get creative. My first thought when we finished the job was, “Wow! I love it!” But is it bad that my next thought was, “I wonder how soon we can do the living room floor?” I feel like my name should be added to the Proverbs 30:15-16 list of things that are never satisfied:
There are three things that are never satisfied, Yea, four that say not, Enough: Sheol; and the barren womb; The earth that is not satisfied with water; And the fire that saith not, Enough. And the woman who hath new flooring in her dining room but not her living room.
We also labored on our bathroom, where the shower walls are still insulation and 2×4 studs. 
Don’t let the homey look of the concrete board fool you - we still need to attach a moisture barrier to the studs before we hang the concrete board. After that we will be ready to begin tiling. My mom and I tiled the kitchen island last spring, but hubby and I have never done a vertical surface so this will be a learning experience for us. Actually I’m already learning a lot. I’m learning to start my day with a bath instead of a shower, and it’s a hard lesson.
Oh, yes. I’m also learning to be patient in the face of massive daddy longleg populations. Remember this? Yesterday the girls earned nearly $20 for killing daddy longlegs in the house. They could earn another $10 this morning if they want. At 5 cents each. You do the math.
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Filed under: Huh? Category?
Your floor is fantastic, Kim! We used sticky tiles on our kitchen floor too, but I never even thought of creating a lovely pattern! I may be showing your picture to My Honey with some slight elbow-to-the-ribs nudging. In a loving way, of course!
Momma
BTW, my children are grieved to hear of the Daddy Longlegs slaughter occurring at your home. They wish me to ask you to forward some of the unfortunates to them, so they can love them.
Silly creatures, children.
I think the floor looks great! You guys have done a lot since me and the kids came out. We will be back in San Antonio in a few months!
Kim, your new floor is lovely! What a great project for your family to work on together.
We have an onslaught of wolf spiders here right now. They are brown spiders about the size of daddy long legs only they have more bulk to them. When you try to kill them they hop… sometimes at you! Still I think your giant hairballs of daddy long legs would be worse!
Miranda
I think ya’ll were very creative. It looks very professional and like you planned it that way.
Wow, I am impressed! That floor does look really nice! Well done!
Wow! You did a really fabulous job!
the floor looks absolutely beautiful! You all did a great job!
Oh, Kim, it looks incredible.
Great job!
Please do not discuss the Daddy longleg situation any further. It is making me squirm!
Sincerely,
Arachnophobic in Minnesota
want to do the floor in my house someday? it looks great
WOW, you guys! So there was only a moment of panic and not actual tears and elevated blood pressure? Hubby and I agree that this looks much better than if you’d done the floor in a uniform vinyl. Way to use your noggins and make the best of a potentially-meltdown-inducing situation!
I just LOVE the look of the floor. I *really* hope for your sake that it lasts well. I had a bad experience after laying down sticky tile in the bathroom (don’t try it!!). The tiles looked ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL for two weeks.
Then they peeled back, moved everywhere and left a sticky residue on the floor. We eventually had to save our pennies and hire a contractor to scrape everything up and lay real tile. But meanwhile we went through a large number of smelly carpet remnants… You can’t wash the carpet with the sticky goo from the floor on the back, you know … and you can’t keep bathroom carpet dry. Yewh, I’m glad that’s a distant memory LOL!
Just found your blog and am delurking to say that the floor looks great! Congrats! So nice that you guys could work together to design that!
‘Tis the season for home remodeling, I guess! We’re doing it, too! I am using laminate….
I like your pattern very much. I think it looks better than a monotonous style. Since you have an open floor plan, making “rooms” by distinguishing the floors is perfect.
Hope your bathroom gets done soon!
Enjoy!
Thanks everyone! The more I look at it, the more I like it. The only catch is now that I have a real floor in front of the door, I find myself doing crazy things like laying a towel there for muddy feet, and following after people as I wipe up their footprints. Sandy-beige flooring is far less forgiving than the “aged plywood” look.
Homeschool and etc,
Sorry you’ve had a bad time with your sticky tile! We’ve had ours in the bathroom for 2 1/2 years already with no problem at all, even when the toilet leaked under the floor causing the subflooring to swell and bulge!
We have the same tile in the kitchen, where one of my daughters (who will remain nameless) dropped the fully heated iron and stared in horror rather than picking it up. I crossed two rooms to pick it up myself, and it left no hint of a mark.
Needless to say, I’m pretty happy with our sticky vinyl tile.
Good gracious that is an invasion!!!!
Your dinning room floor look’s AMAZING.
Love you and miss you.Briana
I had to laugh because I had a similar experience with the ceramic tile I used on my kitchen counter top…after purchasing coordinating edge pieces at another store and delaying a couple months until I was good and ready, the tile I wanted was out of stock at all local Home Depots. I begged and groveled and got a responsible employee to search the computer to find a store 50 miles away that still had the right color in stock.
Your design is beautiful! It’s similar to the design on my kitchen floor (different colors).
RE: tiling on walls. I have only used ceramic tile, so assuming you’re using ceramic tiles around the bathtub, my advice is to start at the bottom and work up and don’t use too much mastic (gravity has a way of turning against you if you don’t follow these two rules).
Looks great!! I empathize with you. My husband and I have been remodeling a home for 5 year now, and it is no fun to live with open walls and unfinished floors. I am guilty too of finishing a project and the next moment talking about the next. Very vexing to my husband. But we have learned so much about how to work better as a team.
Found you through Frugal Hacks. The floor is terrific! Truly it looks just like something from a showroom! I bought it!
As for the spiders! AKKK! I guess the frugal thing would be to look at them as free Halloween decorations? OK so maybe that’s a stretch!LOL
I would never have guessed that you hadn’t originally intended to do the floor that way, if you hadn’t said so. It’s beautiful!
-Rachel
THAT is amazing! Wonderful!