Putting Up Tile In The Kitchen

A big discussion to determine top and bottom.  

   I have no history of working with glass tile or ceramic or whatever other kinds there are.   (I do have some history working with field tile, but that will be a story for another day.)    I have read a few books about "How to install bathroom and/or kitchen tile and even watched a few "YouTubes"   Still I always procrastinate when it comes to the idea of trying it out.   

  One day when shopping at my favorite big box home supply store I discovered that they had some self adhesive kitchen tile for sale.     So I broke out the billfold and decided to give it a try. 

Starting in the corner and working out. 

    As courageous as that sounds I still waited until one of the boys showed up - the one who had done some bathroom tiling before -  and together we decided to spend the day installing some of this glass tile.   (It was another one of those visits where they came to see their mother and it just turns out to be one of those trips working on a project that dad had lined up.   What can I say?   It works great for me...)   

   We started by removing everything off the top of the counters (Including my coffee maker) and then we cleaned up all the walls so that the self adhesive would stick all the better. 

Let's pause - finger count - yep 10. 

   While I was shopping for tile that day way back,  I saw that they had this cheap little plastic tile cutter on a close out sale and so I brought that home also.    One thing I did do was purchase a good quality glass cutting blade to replace the blade that came with the saw. 

    It actually worked quite well.    I kept the belt sander close by my work station and would use that to smooth out any edges that may have been a little rough and to be honest - there were not very many.

Grandpa mentioned something about
his coffee maker is not where it is suppose
to be.   

       
    It was a good team effort.    My son worked in the kitchen mounting the tile.    I set up a work station in the garage which was nice as that glass cutting blade ran through a water tray and that was a little messy.    So I did all the cutting of the tile.   Then there was my grandson who basically brought specific measurements out to me - or a tile with a mark on it as to where the cut should be. Once the cut was made he would run it back in to his dad to mount.     

     This stuff was a little spendy for this old guy so I did not want to screw up a cut and fortunately I did not.     All went well. 

   Four hours later we were finished.   

Where did the idea come from that I was going to issue paychecks?

   We went around all the counter top which was about 24 feet and we just went up four inches.    Sort of a border above the counter.

    The wife was quite happy with the results (and that is what counts the most.) 

    So now that I have done this little tiling task I am ready to take on another tiling job.    It is on the list.    Maybe a basement floor.    Maybe a shower wall.   (I wonder when the sons are coming to visit again....)