Dueling DIY: Three Tiled Walls

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As of last week’s Dueling DIY update, two walls had been tiled in the kitchen. The tiny one near the fridge (aka the future coffee station):

– and the wall along the sink:

Which left only the wall along the stove to finish. And this wall is precisely why I’m glad that the clock moved an hour forward.

Having a little daylight to run a tile saw after work? Sooooo very nice. It helps me to justify the annoying scraping sounds I’m subjecting my neighbors to (once the sun goes down, I feel more like I’m rudely interrupting someone’s peaceful dinner regardless of the actual time of day).

I was unexpectedly out of town for a few days last week, so unfortunately, the walls still aren’t ready for grout. I guess, though, it’s a blessing to have had a little more time, because I ran into a small problem. I was flying through the tile job along the wall until I realized that the upper cabinets and level line of my tile were not parallel to each other. Wop, wop. Which meant playing an annoying game of trying to disguise both inconsistencies. If I were to align the tile with the unlevel cabinet (so the part that you look at above the stove appears level, even though it isn’t), the way the grout line fell just made the tile look like it was melting along the wall. If I were to use the tile perfectly level, the upper cabinet would look like someone hung it drunk.

I’m not saying that didn’t happen. But I have stopped trying to understand how the builders did half of the things that happened in this house. I used some of the surplus wedges I had to try to fudge some (hopefully) unnoticeable extra spacing between some of the tiles. Guess this makes the decision between white and light gray grout a little easier (white has a better chance of hiding these imperfections since it will match the tile color). So, guess I’ll put that in the win column?

I have the last few tiles to cut just below the upper cabinets and a few intricate cuts around the outlet in order to finish off the wall. Hopefully I’ll still have some daylight to complete that this evening (though it’s raining, so probably tomorrow). And then, caulk and grout.

Which I hate (both silicone caulk and grout). But at least that means the tile job is almost over, and then I get my kitchen back. Now, go see what Carrie is up to, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve been doing to your kitchens! Link up!