Tubstep: Slappin' da basement

The bathroom is coming along! Slow and steady wins the race!

We finally got our basement toilet working properly and, of course, uncovered some amazing new problems! But, I think we always kind of knew there would be something...lurking...

Today the tile goes in and I had to compromise a little, which bums me out, but that's what happens with design! I just didn't think I would be making decisions while sitting at my desk. As usual, google came through for me...

The finish date is supposed to be Friday, but that's with no more surprises...

And then I'll be able to sleep in my own bed again.

Backsplash to the Future!

This last weekend, my mom came out for a visit and I was finally able to go shopping for my kitchen! I got the Ikea birch counter tops and a white apron front sink. They are resting in a corner waiting for John and I to have time to put them in.

Then my mom wanted to go tile shopping. Since I'm installing a new sink and new countertops, my mom thought I should look at backsplashes! But I think she really wanted to look at tile for her own kitchen...

I found the one above at a fancy tile shop. Around $24/sqft. Yikes!

I found this at Home Depot for $7/sqft:

There is a slight difference but not a $17 difference!

I also thought maybe white penny tiles would be cool:

These are from modwalls in marshmallow.

John wasn't a fan, but I like how it's both vintage and modern. 

He wanted something with color. 'Cause you know what my kitchen is lacking? Color.

 So, while looking for some color for the backsplash, I found this:

Chevron! Or Herringbone?

Chevbone?

To get a good chevron pattern, I'd need a tile that was more than twice as long as it was wide. So like a 2" x 6". Try finding those in more than one color. (I did find them, for $40/sqft!)

But! Don't give up hope! I found these!

 

Individually, they look like this:

 John thought they looked too "Grecian," but they also had yellow!

It may be too much color, but it's worth a shot. It would be so fresh and fun to have a sunny backsplash!

What do you think? Should I stick with white and add pattern? Or go with color?

John's been sick and refuses to talk tile, so I'd love any input you have!!

It's called a bathroom floor, and here's what it's for...

Previously on Bathroom Nightmares: I discovered this beautiful floor under five layers of linoleum/vinyl. I felt like an archaeologist! Upon the advice of my neighbor, we used lacquer thinner to wipe up the nasty black stuff. And SURPRISE! A near perfect hex tile floor.There's one missing tile right next to the toilet, you can see it in the photo, but otherwise, it's completely intact!

There are some slight issues, but for an eighty three year old floor, she's lookin' pretty good. Some of the tiles had some chips in them before they black-stuffed it so the black stuff settled into the cracks. My amazing neighbor, happier than I was about my discovery, offered to come over and help me dig out the cracks.

There's still a ton to do. We took out that nasty vanity which will be replaced by a pedestal sink my boys bought me for mother's day.

I have to seal the baseboards I bought, gorgeous yellow pine, sand and prime that wall, and paint the wall Silver Spoon gray.

And since I only bleached the perimeter of the floor in preparation for the baseboards, I still have to bleach the rest of it. I used comet and a sanding sponge to get all the dirt/black haze up. You can see the edge of the tile is much whiter than the rest of the floor.

I'm pretty sure my lack of cable will benefit my life more than I thought. I would've never torn up my floor if The People's Court was on.