This Old House

As we started another one of our many home improvement projects for this summer (which include, but are not limited to: laying tile downstairs, new linoleum in the kitchen, new widows downstairs, and a new yard in the back), Mom said, "I feel like we're in an episode of This Old House." I think mostly she was considering the terrible shape some of the walls and floors are in. Nonetheless, we moved everything out of the laundry room and bathroom on Monday, cut and laid out all the tile on Tuesday, and yesterday we mixed mortar and laid it all for good. (Well, I hope it's good.)

These shots were taken after the initial layout. I'll wait until the grout is in and baseboards replaced to show you the finished product. I actually enjoyed laying the tile, and Mom was a big help. Looking at it this morning, there is one tile that sticks up a little on one edge (not sure how that happened) but the rest looks pretty good. 

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The other project happening simultaneously is the kitchen floor. The floor guy started work yesterday, but discovered that a section of the sub-floor had to be replaced. (Said he wasn't licensed to replace it - what's up with that?). So anyway, after laying tile most of the day, I got to rip up an 8'x2' section of floor aroud the back door, and today I'll cut the new stuff in. I like that kind of work too. Below you see the kitchen cleared out before work started.

And below you see where we put everything - the front room. No, the stove is not plugged in (it's gas), and yes, the fridge is plugged in. I kind of like it there. Don't have to walk all the way around the corner to get a drink of cold water or a snack. Mel probably won't go for leaving it there though. Probably. . .

But anyway, since the kitchen was torn up we had to eat out last night (and maybe tonight too - WooHoo!) so we used a gift card I got from a  student this past year and got a couple of really good drinks at Juice-It-Up (like Jamba Juice), then drove over and picked up a couple of really good sandwiches at Quizno's. All this on the tail of the Giant's finishing a 3 game, shut out sweep of the Dodgers! Life is good.