the summer of tiles, part 4.

Here it is, the long-awaited part four of the tile adventure!

Remember in part three how I mentioned a few loose tiles that needed to come up & be redone? Well. That was quite an understatement. In the process of taking out the dried mortar to redo those tiles, we inadvertently loosened others.  In the end, it was 26 tiles that we had to do over.  Gah.

Needless to say, motivation was hard to find. We worked on getting up the dried mortar, bit by bit, and it was rather discouraging.  But last week, we finally pushed through, thanks to a borrowed air chisel and the corresponding air compressor. Oh, and knowing we had houseguests coming on Sunday helped, too.

Matt using the air chisel.

Here you can kind of see a lot of the tiles we had to take up.  This was getting near the end of getting up the dried mortar.  Which was a huge job.  Yuck.

It's unbelievable how much mortar we got up.

See what I mean?  I don't even know how many buckets of dried mortar we threw away. :(

This was early last week.

Naomi helped on Thursday night with getting up dried mortar.  Matt & I were very impressed!  Working that air chisel is a little tricky, but she caught on right away.

Matt on the air chisel and Naomi hand chiseling in the corner, getting ready for laying more tiles.

Friday night.  Finishing up the last batch of tiles.

This was how we kept everybody (including the dog) off this lone tile by the pantry.

The last night's barricade to prevent human and canine ventures onto the freshly-laid tiles.

On Saturday, as we went through the tile store's parking lot, I couldn't help notice the warning we were ignoring. ;)

On Saturday, all five of us got on the floor with chisels and mallets to get the mortar out of the grout lines so we could grout late that night.

Sitting on one of the couches, not feeling like starting the grout.  But it had to be done that night to be ready for our houseguests the next night.  I think this was about 10:00 p.m.

Matt mixing up the grout Saturday night after we sent the kids up to bed.

We were working on grouting and doing the first wash on the tiles until 2:30 Sunday morning.

Part of the kitchen before we got the grout haze off.

We were pretty much done in.  Tired and achy.  Matt quickly washed the rest of the floor before we crashed in bed, totally exhausted.

And this is on Sunday evening, after Jesse finished getting the haze off.  It was so nice working together to put our furniture back and clean the dust off everything.

And Jesse's look here pretty much sums up how we all were feeling about having the downstairs back to normal.

And the photos below are on Monday morning. We were all so amazed that the main living area was complete. I just can't even explain to you what a peaceful, relaxing feeling I have inside, just knowing this is complete. Yesterday, I bought some fall-smelling air wick fresheners and a candle, and it smells like apple cinnamon in here now. It matches how I feel inside. Ahhh...

We were so enjoying our first morning with the house back together.  Joshua was doing a puzzle and Jesse was telling us all of a fantasy book he wants to write.  Monday was such a relaxing day.

And here is the view facing the dining area and kitchen.  I love it.

Matt says seeing this part complete motivates him to get the rest done. And so, this weekend we will ne working on the front entry.

So lovely, eh?

The half bath is going to look so good when we get the tiles in there. :)

And so, because we still have the half bath and front entry to tile, you know there will be a part five of this seemingly enless tile story.  But we truly are nearing the end.  And it feels so great. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have the kitchen appliances back where they belong and to have our dining room table back.  I am so happy! :)