A New Kitchen Floor

Laying cement board for the first run of tile.

The new appliances were scheduled to be delivered on February 21, so the kitchen floor had to be in by that time. I was surprised at how much planning it took to lay the tiles. It isn't as easy as shown on HGTV. I can't even begin to describe how you have to choose which wall to start from and which direction and where you want tiles to end and begin so that you have whole tiles where people walk and not partial tiles. You have to lay cement board and let that dry. You have to lay tiles and let that dry with spacers between the tiles. Then there is the grout.

Planning the laying of tile had to include the breakfast nook area

We both agreed that the kitchen and breakfast area would be tile. We chose, which surprised me considering my usual New England taste, a Mediterranean type tile. I like the geometric pattern and the colors in the wood and stone kitchen. We disagreed, until just recently at the end of March, on whether to tile the dining room. The dining room will be where the old kitchen was (to the right of the photo above). That area is not even demolished yet, but at least we are reaching consensus on what it will look like!

The finished floor

Once the floor was finished, the appliances could be installed. Above you see how the planning part of tiling affects the areas of the floor where the refrigerator and dishwasher will go. John saved the tiling of the kick plates under the cabinets until all of the tiling was done. Even that part of the floor required a couple of days of pondering and design.

_/\_/\_