Not a Red Herring

Tiling is done! I for one, could not be happier. First, some pictures. Then, I'll break it all down for you.

I decided to go ahead and tile all the way around the cabinets. I think it flows better that way (the edges would have been crazy otherwise).

Is that just not the prettiest thing that you ever did see?

3x6 carrara marble tiles + a whole lot of cutting=a beautiful herringbone back-splash (ignore the door handles, I'll tell you all about them another time).

Did I want to quit? Often. Here's what you need to know before you attempt this pattern.

1. It will take you FOREVER (you know that movie). Seriously. We put in at least 8 hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday working on this thing. Plus 2-3 hours a night since. It isn't even very big- only 42 square feet of space. The reason it took so long? edges. Every place you meet something that wont fit a whole tile you have to measure and cut it. That's a whole heck of a lot of edges. It would have been much easier if we had a blank wall.

2. You will use double the amount of tile you think you will need. Anywhere you meet an edge- that will basically consume a whole tile. We tried to reuse as much as possible but the cuts didn't always fit somewhere else. (Also, and this may be a characteristic of marble, but we broke a lot trying to cut them).

3. Don't do the easy stuff first! We thought we'd get the whole tiles over with and then come back to the cuts. Big mistake. Things shift, tiles are uneven (natural stone has that problem) and suddenly you are ripping out tile to make things fit.

4. Use the right tools. I thought we could do the whole thing with just a tile snapper- boy was I wrong! By day two we were making a trip to Home Depot to get something else (and more tile since I had underestimated). We ended up picking up a Dremel with a tile cutting attachment. It worked great. However, I, like a crazy person, thought the cordless version would be a great idea. WRONG. That thing did not hold up to prolonged use, which made everything take even longer. On the plus side we set up a game so that whoever saw that it was charged first got a kiss, which made things go faster. Moral? Don't go cordless.

5. Know when to take a break. Unless you are a professional tiler or have the patience of a rock you will probably hit a wall. Just take a break and come back. Don't worry, it will still be there in the morning. I also suggest ordering out for dinner. We would push through until we just couldn't do it anymore and then order sushi for delivery. Best reward.

 I have to say, I would have broken down and paid someone to do it if Daniel hadn't been there. He was awesome (and we still love each other after all of those long days).

We've been making lots of progress on many things so there will be more to see (can you say "we blindly picked a color for the bedroom"?) But let me ask- how do you push through the rough projects? Do you stage make-out sessions with your loved ones or are you more of a curse-er? I might have done both.

Cheers!