Getting There

My accomplishment for the week:
 Kitchen tile DONE!
Stove Area

Sink area

Breakfast Nook
The countertops need to be re-sanded and oiled now though (I’m a messy grouter!)

We went with Cepac small subway tiles in Vintage Moss Green (I found them online for almost half of what I could get locally.)  The border is Cepac mosaic tiles in Abalone.  I did find them locally for a decent price, and it didn’t take much to do the border because they came in 12 x 12 squares that I cut into strips.  The beautiful handmade Celtic tiles I ordered from Earth Song Tiles.  They were so nice and I even sent them samples of my tiles first so they could tell me what colors would look best with them.   I think the hardest part of tiling is picking the tile! 

Hubby’s accomplishment:

Playroom floor DONE!

We ordered cork floor from Lumber Liquidators.  It was floating floor and honestly was harder to put in than we expected.  Took him two days.   It is beautiful though and the kids have already moved toys in even though there isn’t any furniture in there.  (Now for furniture…)

Now on to painting the hallway and living room! 

On Kitchen Decisions (Countertops & Backsplash)


The kitchen is coming along…
Very (VERY) Slowly…

Cabinets are in and painted (but without doors until next week)
Undercabinet lights (LED) are in.  Haven’t picked lights for ceiling but not in a rush.
I am not going to put pictures on until the doors are on!

We’ve decided on butcher block countertops for several reasons:

  1. They are pretty
  2. The green factor (we’ll use an oil finish and use a company that uses sustainable woods etc.)
  3. Toughness factor- just have to sand to get dings and such out 
  4. It’s pretty cheap 

Not sure about the countertop for the island though.  I wanted something I could roll dough on, that was cooler like steel or marble but the prices I’m finding are crazy! 

Trying to decide on a backsplash now.
I want recycled glass tiles I think.  Maybe some handmade tiles for accent.  To keep costs down this is the way to go.  I found glass tile from $3-$9 per square foot which isn’t bad.
For the glass I’m waiting on some samples from a company we used for our bath remodel in our current house (we used Hakatai Emerald blend and it’s beautiful.)  LOVE their tile and it wasn’t expensive.  Also considering ordering from myknobs.com if the shipping ends up being cheaper.

The handmade accent tiles I’ve found on etsy and on earthsongtiles.com I really like.
Debating these now:

Handmade Tiles from www.earthsongtiles.com