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DIY

May 26th, 2012

Mr Chiots and I really enjoy doing things ourselves. We’re especially excited when we get to tackle a new project and can do something we’ve never done before. This weekend we’re redoing our main bathrooms. It was in very sad shape, the vinyl floor was torn and the cabinet was falling apart. We considered simply adding new vinyl floor, but decided we really wanted to learn how to lay a tile floor.

After looking at all of our options, we found these 1″ Hex Marble tiles that were only slightly more expensive than regular white porcelain. Since our bathroom is only 25 square feet, it wasn’t that expensive to buy enough to cover the floors.

On Thursday evening we tore out the old floor and got everything ready for tile and painted the room a pale robin egg blue. Yesterday we set the tile, today we plan on grouting, and tomorrow the new sink and cabinet will go in. If we were planning on staying here I would have put a heating system in the floor to warm in up in the winter.


Laying tile isn’t that difficult, but it does take more time than installing other types of floors. Now we have another DIY skill under our belts, next up wiring the upstairs and installing drywall!

What kind of DIY project have you always wanted to tackle that you haven’t yet?

22 Comments to “DIY”
  1. daisy on May 26, 2012 at 5:48 am

    Wow! It looks great! Are you intimidated by anything? Seems y’all can do anything diy-related!
    There are so many skills I hope to acquire. Big K does not share my enthusiasm. He wants our next house to be almost-new, so he doesn’t have to fix anything! What a party-pooper! ;0)

    Reply to daisy's comment

    • Chris Tindall on May 26, 2012 at 11:46 pm

      Daisy, you can tell Big K that even a NEW house has lots of maintenance… :) In face, everybody I know who has purchased a “new” house has had MORE work than anybody I know with an older house – new houses just aren’t the same quality… :)

      ~Chris

      Reply to Chris Tindall's comment

  2. Allison on May 26, 2012 at 8:23 am

    Nice – I like them. Hubby is going to start banning me from visiting Chiot’s Run – LOL. You aren’t going to want to move once you guys are finished with everything!!

    Reply to Allison's comment

    • Susy on May 26, 2012 at 9:41 pm

      It’s a good house to practice on! We’re hoping that it’s so nice we’ll sell it right away – that’s the plan with all of our improvements – we’re taking away all the negatives.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  3. Terry on May 26, 2012 at 11:28 am

    We just learned to do tile this week too! We tiled the bathtub/shower walls.

    Reply to Terry's comment

    • Susy on May 26, 2012 at 9:41 pm

      Can’t wait to do a shower someday.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  4. Deb on May 26, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    Looks very ncie and I’m sure you’ll be very happy with the room when you’re done. Very good job with tile, we’ve never did that.

    Reply to Deb's comment

  5. judym on May 26, 2012 at 2:28 pm

    I, myself would like to redo at one of the bedrooms upstairs. Built-in bookcases, window seating, re purposed furniture, sand and paint design on outdated very dark wood floor. . Hubby does most things but this is what I want to do myself.

    Reply to judym's comment

  6. Brenda on May 26, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    I love that even though you look like you will be moving on you continue to invest time and money into your home. Whoever buys your place will be very lucky indeed. xx Brenda

    Reply to Brenda's comment

    • Susy on May 26, 2012 at 9:42 pm

      We’re certainly hoping so – they won’t have to do anything to the house for quite a while.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  7. Maybelline on May 26, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    Okay – this is creepy. Just another similarity. My bathrooms have these hex tiles only they are unglazed porcelain.

    DIY is my/our life. My husband and I often ponder what other people do. They don’t clean their own homes. They don’t do their own yardwork. They don’t cook. These are basic things that fill our days.

    Reply to Maybelline's comment

    • Susy on May 26, 2012 at 8:41 pm

      We sometimes wonder the same thing!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. jennifer schroeder on May 26, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    that was some color in that bathroom! You will post final pics won’t you?

    Reply to jennifer schroeder's comment

    • Susy on May 26, 2012 at 8:42 pm

      Yes – bright green! Certainly will post pics when it’s all finished – hopefully next week.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  9. Amy on May 26, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    Very pretty choice! I can’t wait to see how it comes together. We need to redo both of our 1978 bathrooms (with their awesome ’70s teal shower and tub!), but right now we’re busy with outdoor projects. Hopefully, this weekend we’ll finish our new garden space and raised beds!

    Reply to Amy's comment

  10. Chris Tindall on May 26, 2012 at 11:51 pm

    I think you’ll find that both electrical and sheetrock are easy – you’ll definitely want to find a licensed electrician to at the VERY least sign off on your work, as the house sale will require a sign off on that… and sheetrock is simple, but it IS an art form to make it look great. Which I’m quite sure the two of you will pull off on your very first attempt… :)

    Thanks for sharing all these – it’s fun to see what you guys are doing!

    ~Chris

    Reply to Chris Tindall's comment

  11. Turling on May 27, 2012 at 10:44 am

    We have only moved once, but it is funny how all the projects were finished (and sometimes started) because we were moving.

    Reply to Turling's comment

  12. louisa @ TheReallyGoodLife on May 28, 2012 at 7:20 am

    Love the hexagons! I’ve been tiling recently too – duck egg blue tiles for kitchen splashbacks (including covering a wide window sill). My work isn’t perfect — but neither is the tiling in the shower or porch we’ve had done by professionals in the last year, and my work was certainly a lot cheaper!

    One DIY skill I’d like to learn is plastering – we had a lot of original (1897) plaster-on-stone walls when we moved into the house and have had to have a lot of them replaced or at least skimmed to smooth them out. It seems like a skill that would appeal to my OCD! I’d also like to learn about plumbing “just in case” — I’d rarely have to plaster (or lay tiles) in an emergency but plumbing sometimes can’t wait for a professional to reach the house…

    Reply to louisa @ TheReallyGoodLife's comment

  13. stephanie on September 10, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    The floor looks great! I’m planning to try my hand at installing the same tile in my bathroom this month. Did you use a wet saw to cut the tile? How much trouble did you have? Funny, I can’t seem to find very much helpful info on cutting small marble tiles online. Thanks in advance!

    Reply to stephanie's comment

    • Susy on September 11, 2012 at 7:47 am

      We didn’t use a wet saw, we used tile nippers. After much reading this was the recommended way to cut them. We found these Superior Tile Cutter Tile Nippers #80 that are made in the USA.

      That being said, we didn’t have a ton to cut. Along one wall each piece needed cut a little, which ended up being under the shoe moulding. We also had to cut a few along edge that went right into the bathroom. It does take some practice and isn’t super precise. We used any extra tiles to practice on and had to recut a few of them. Overall it worked quite well though. You can use the ones that don’t break as well in areas that won’t be seen, like around the register, etc.

      Reply to Susy's comment

      • stephanie on September 11, 2012 at 8:59 pm

        Thanks so much, Susy! I didn’t think nippers were an option with stone. I’ll have to pick some up. I just started removing the old tile today and realized my second floor bathroom is sitting on a 5″ concrete slab. Looks like this renovation may be more involved than I thought. Aren’t they all?

        to stephanie's comment

      • Susy on September 11, 2012 at 9:18 pm

        They certainly are! At least with the slab you’ll have a great foundation for those tiles!

        to Susy's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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