Undaunted Gardener: Projects continue...

Tile and Doors - and not much more:)

President's Day Weekend meant we had three days. We'd been wanting to tile the laundry room, entry from garage and bathroom (most recent project). So earlier in the week we decided to dedicate the weekend to the tile project.

I was pretty sure I wanted a dark slate looking tile. I went to Home Depot but found nothing dark. So, then over to Lowes. Why is it always 8:00 at night when I have a chance to do this kind of stuff? I did find a tile that would work perfect, 12x24 size that I wanted, AND it was on sale! 1.98 a square foot - but there was only one box. I waited around until an employee came by and I could inquire if there was any more tile - and hooray - they had a whole pallet! So I bought one tile to take home to show Jim and see what he thought, and another 'runner up'. In the end, we went with the charcoal porcelain tile.

Friday night, when I got home from work, Jim had already pulled up the funky wooden tile stuff that was on the floor. I don't know how to explain what this stuff was, but it was probably before it's time when it was installed. And underneath, was some lovely linoleum that just screamed 1970s. Since it was glued to the cement, we decided to leave it and tile over the top of it. So Friday night, we started laying the pattern. I wanted a herringbone pattern but we were both a little skeptical since we've never done it before, but once it was laid out, we decided to go for it.

Friday night, working as a team, we got the laundry room floor tiled. Saturday we started on the entry and bathroom - which went slower since the space was smaller. It was kind of a challenge to get yourself in the bathroom and the tile, and the mortar and still have somewhere to squat to work.

The pictures below tell the story - and 'remaking the doors' turned into a bigger project - or at least it felt like it, than the tile project. We just couldn't put those ugly doors back up with our gorgeous tile.

It's Monday night - we are both tired and satisfied.

The tan flooring is the wood tiles - not sure what it is - but is was dated. Love the mats all tossed in the bathroom - but that was when I remembered to take a before picture!

Here's the original linoleum - pretty great condition too!
Too bad I'm not into the retro look!

Entry way - looking straight ahead to garage and to the right is the laundry room.

Close up of that 1970's linoleum

Began by laying out the pattern to see if we thought we could do it,
and if it was the look we wanted.
I wanted the herringbone since the laundry room is pretty long and narrow.
I wanted a pattern that would make it feel less like a runway.
At this point I was second guessing the tile - it looked like ugly cement.
I kept telling myself that the linoleum was throwing off my eye.

Beginning the tiling in the bathroom

Tile down in the laundry room

Tile down in the bathroom

Tile down in the entryway.
Note the ugly brown door that goes to the garage and the brown trim on the door ways

Bathroom tile after grouting
Love it!!

Painted and installed baseboard

Used the wide baseboard that we've been using
all over the house. Love it!

Laundry room after grouting

Entry way after grouting
We must have rinsed, washed off the tile 6 to 8 times before it was clean from the grout

Note the dark wood trim around laundry room door - it's white now!
Can you say 5 coats with paint that has primer in it!
Sick of painting trim!

This is the door to the basement - (still needs to be transformed) - I forgot to take 'before' shots of the other doors - but they were just like this one.

Here it is again - I had started to paint the trim

This is the only picture I had of the door going to the garage before

The beginning of the transformation for the bathroom door.
Using the quarter inch playwood to make a panel door.

Best sport in the world - this was our romantic Valentine's Day!

I thought about buying new knobs, but at $16. for one door, I was headed for the spray paint.
So far, have sprayed 4 sets and still have lots of paint left in that $5.50 can.

Here's the panel door in the bathroom after it's been painted a gazillion times.
This ishot s from the corner of the bathroom.

There's the door knob after paint.
The walls look khaki colored in these photos, but they're actually gray. Huh.

Bathroom panel door.

This is the laundry room door (no knob on yet)
Used some left-over wainscot from the walls in the laundry room and then trimmed them.
Another gazillion coats of paint.