Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Kitchen Renovations #4

We left you last time with the floor all torn up and the kids playing in the trenches. The first picture here is of the floor ready to be tiled and finished so we could set the cabinets. What you see here is the cement back in the trenches covering the plumbing and gas lines.
Then we move straight up to the ceiling. It was a great thing to get the ceiling back up because we were being eaten by mosquitoes. Very odd way of ceiling tiles, though. You put some quarter sheet plywood up and then put these baggettes up to make it look like they are ceiling tiles. It is impossible to replace just one, though:) Now we can begin to tile the floor to make it completely finished. This is the process that most fasinates me. Of course, a level floor is very important to getting the cabinets set. The first thing we told the guys who laid the tile was that we needed a level floor, So, they brought in the sand, the cement, and the water and began to mix it all. Now, the amazing thing is that they used only a board to level this floor and never once touched a level. They went over and over the floor with this 2 X 4, and to my amazement, the floor is perfectly level. You could put a marble in the middle of the room and it would not go anywhere.



What you are seeing here is the pile of sand and cement as they get ready to lay the floor back in before they lay the tile. When the have the floor ready, they begin to lay the tile. Now, laying tile in a totally empty room is ok, but trying to do it to match an already existing tiled room and hallway, it gets a bit tricky. We didn't have extra tiles, so it was super important for them not to waste any.After they lay the tile on this cement, sand mix, they pour water over the whole floor to drain down into the cement to help set it. They next day, they come in with the grout to finish it all up. When they were all done, you see the final product.Here is Janice posing for the camera on the new floor. Now the room is ready for the cabinets to go in...oops, not quite yet...we still have to paint! Stay tuned!

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