Ok I am like WAY behind on blogging but I have been SUPER busy I went nutz living in the Piece of crap house I was trapped in about 3 years ago and made a few upgrades to the place but still I left it in shambles this is what I did to the 1970's kitchen, stripping it down to the amazingly well preserved wood underneath.

                                                                  Cleaning the crud

         tearing up on the back-splash shows you the ugly formica was it gets better later, trust me.

 Put a layer of fiberglass so I wasn't putting the thinset right onto the wood as it shouldn't be put right onto the wood. Remember after cutting or even working with fiberglass to wear breathing  protection and to shower with cold water first so that your pores don't open and embed the glass into your body.

 Ok i didn't show the process of cutting these to size as I was outside unable to do that and cut too. So I started with the edge but when I laid these out to get the look I wanted, I started with the whole tile dead center and worked out from there. 13 inch tile I think it was.

 I found something SO much nicer than thinset to use on counters and tabletops and back splashes so this was just a good learning experience here using thinset but if you want the trick I learned it is a two sided adhesive you lay down  and you can grout the same day, AMAZING I love it.  So go to www.thesimplemat.com to research it, you won't regret it.

 when you are working "on the Diomond" (this technique) you want to draw a line dead center the length of the project like here I would go the length of the back splash and match up  the corners of the tile to the line along the wall so that they are even and not tweeked funny. Then you cut the opposite tile just in half to the best of your ability, then use your lil rubber spacers to place and get the fit before fastening to the wall, then lay your adhesive after you lay your tile EXACTLY in front of where you want them to go so they fit the next time as you may not be able to see the line after you get the adhesive in place. And as you can see what I have done here, it is best to work form the corners outward.

 I was so tickled with these nippers that I had to make a video of the ease of the bites it took so I could fit the sink back in, nice and easy this way.

                                                                    Ok time to grout

                                                                      Sink fits nicely

 Messed up on the cut of the outlet hole and over cut a bit thank heavens for larger fancy outlet covers (whew), and as you can see this corner didn't match up very well for me but i won't lose any sleep over it as it was my first experience tiling...

 Here was a bit of a dilemma couldn't figure out what to do with this corn er til I prayed and was given this nice idea.

                       Ok done with the grouting and clean up which was a nightmare I must confess.

 These lil glass tiles are wonderful UNTIL you find the ones that were crooked on the 12X12 mats they come in and you have already grouted them into place "OH DIRTY WORDS!!!"

 An now for the FLOOR I am going to say now that I have finished the floor I do not EVER want to do another one what a nightmare, ok you can tile right on top of linoleum and linoleum tiles, but the floor itself has so many ripples in it is was soooooo not worth the time I spent on this doing it "On the diamond"  the thinset you see all over is just me evening out the floors low spots sheesh it was horrible.

 My kids all got to lay a tile in this floor at least those who wanted to help me even the twins at 4 years old.

                                                               Don't look to closely.

       FINALLY done this took forever cause I started to give up on it when my husband came home. I do that when he comes home and lays around and doesn't do anything we neither do I.

 OK got'er done got a new(used) stove and new (used)fridge for just a small investment and my kitchen looks ALMOST new!!!Now I need to think of the paint bought the paint to match and fell into a wonderful rental home that now I am buying so I ran almost screaming form this money pit.