I can tile?

I pose that title as a question because the answer is questionable. The walls haven't come down yet, so I think I was successful. Maybe, YES, I can tile.

There are a few large projects in our home that I have avoided because of FEAR. Plain, good old, I-am-a-big-huge-sissy fear. One of them is the marble that surrounded our tub. It has bothered me for over a year now, since I added the molding to the walls around the tub here.

The marble is a creamy color and the walls are bright white. For normal people this would not be a big deal, but it made me twitch a bit, cause as you know, I'm not normal. I have been wanting to take off the marble surround and replace it with tile foreva.

So Saturday morning, I thought, what the heck, I'm going to go for it! What's the worst that could happen? Uh, believe me, the "worsts" were running through my head.

Sister helped me take off the marble -- I used razor and a pry bar, being careful not to dent the wall as I took off the marble:

This house was built very well, but we have found the one thing they skimped on -- all the tile in the house was glued down, instead of mortared. Makes an easier job for me, so I'm cool with it. Hubby was working downstairs and I didn't even mention this little project was going to happen -- he didn't know about it until he walked in and saw the mess. There was just a brief flash of complete panic on his lovely face, but God bless this man, it didn't last long. He has faith in me. :)

I didn't take pics of the installation part of this project, because I was working like a crazy mad woman to get it all done before my son woke up from his nap. You basically take the mortar and mix it like the directions say -- water and the mortar, mix it up -- that's it! Make sure to do this outside with a mask on.

The directions say to put the mortar on the surface and the back of the tile, but I did a couple with the backs covered and quickly found it didn't need it -- there was way too much and it was spilling through the tiles.

You know how on HGTV when they mortar, they just slap it on the walls and it goes on like butta? Yeah, it didn't work like that. I would swipe it on and it would pretty much just fall right off. It was fab. Next time I won't put quite as much water in as the instructions call for.

This is how it looked before the grout:

One thing I have learned about tiling is you can't judge it until you have grouted. Grouting just makes all the difference in the world:

To grout, you use the same mixer thing that attached to the drill and water or grout enhancer. I got the enhancer ($5) because it's supposed to help reduce the possibility of mold:

This part was much easier then the mortar:

My back was keeeeeeling me at this point, so I tried to sit for most of this part, but it didn't work out that way for long:

(See the Pepsi and popcorn? Sister was trying to give me energy food.) You'll notice I taped off the area around the tub with paper -- this was a life saver both during the mortar process and the grouting. It made for much easier clean up! The hardest part of this WHOLE process was wiping down the tile after grouting -- it felt like Groundhog's Day -- over and over and over. (And over.)

I still have some paint touch ups to do and some caulking, but for now, it is done:

I wouldn't have done it quite so tall, but some of the drywall tore of as we took off the marble, so I had to go a bit higher than expected:

I love how it ties the creamy of the marble tub, the white of the walls, and the green accent color all together! Yes, I am a happy crazy woman.

And yes, that's beadboard around the tub -- I just glued it right on the marble a while back. LOVE it! Here's the before before, from a couple years ago:

Here it is today. YAY!:

I'm going to do a little accent of this by our sinks to tie it all together, and I'll take pics of that process start to finish -- I won't be so sceered next time. Then, I want to rip out the shower surround and tile that whole thing, then the floors, then, then, then... Now, if I can just get those fixtures on the tub replaced, I'd be in heaven.

If you haven't seen my interview at houzz.com today, go here to check it out! Make sure to comment there for a chance to win the Ballard pear! (See previous post.) Your comments over there are making. my. year. by the way. I am so honored to inspire you. I can't thank you enough for your support.

Uh oh.

This could be a problem...I may have developed a new obsession today. I decided a long time ago I wanted to redo the tile on our master bedroom fireplace. We picked out the tile when we built the house, but it's always bothered me. It had a peachy tone that drove me nuts...

I thought it would be a relatively cheap project. But after looking into it I realized it had the potential of costing hundreds of dollars, even though only about 20 square feet of tile was needed. The tiles I found (I was looking for something unusual) were going to end up at $600 or more.

So I took another trip to trusty Lowes and found just what I wanted. A tumbled stone in small mosiac squares -- it had all the colors in it that I wanted and I found slate tile to go on the hearth that worked perfectly with it. Total cost was $90 for the mosiac tiles and $22 for the slate.

I was going to try to do the project myself but my father-in-law insisted -- he is an expert at it (used to do it for a living) and I was happy to have him do it. They did the work today and I am THRILLED with the result:

Ohhhh my goodness, I am so excited. They will grout it tomorrow and then in a week I can seal it. Sealing makes it look like it's wet and makes all of the colors even deeper and prettier.

Problem is, I'm looking all over the house to find places I can tile now. I have extra scrapes of the mosiac tile and I am dying to use it somewhere! I think our foyer may be an upcoming project now that I've seen the difference tile can make. I think I may be able to do it myself too. This is not good! :)