Christmas Break Projects

Hello all!  It's been a whole week since I've checked in. We've been so busy this Christmas break with family events, home projects, and traveling.  I'm so thankful for the time we had with family and friends.  The week off felt super short and super long all at the same time. When I think of all we did it's kinda crazy!

Our biggest project was starting on our kitchen tile.  I always have a really hopeful outlook on big projects like this one. I think, "Oh, we'll just put in the whole kitchen/laundry/bathroom tile in a couple days...no biggie"... little do I know.  Thanks to my dad, we were actually ready to lay tile down the day we were planning on starting the whole project.

I was unaware of ALL the time it takes to prepare the area.  Here are just a few things we had to do BEFORE we were able to lay down tile:

1. Cut the trim boards around the doors so the backer board and tile will fit under all of them.
2. Take off and number all base boards.
3. Lay down backer board.
4. Put about 40 screws in EACH piece of backer board...ya that leaves a nice callus.
5. Unhook Washer, Dryer, Fridge
6. Take out toilet and sink in bathroom (which lead to going under the house to shut off the main water to the house, since the toilet was leaking...then going to Lowes to get more parts to fix the toilet.)
    *oh, and scraping off the nasty toilet sealant that's stuck on the floor when you move the toilet...ya, not fun!  I had no idea what was under those!

Keep in mind...this is ALL PREP WORK!  Thank you Dad for helping us so much with this part!

Here's the before pics:

Not sad about this linoleum going away!

And the first pieces of backer board are going down!

Thanks to my dad, we got a lot done that day!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!  Check back in for more progress on the floor!  It's coming along!