Kitchen Reno Part 3 - Subway Tile

YOOO. I left  you with just having laid our butcher block counter tops on top of the cabinets. I knew I wanted a backsplash and I just wanted something timeless and simple. A few years ago I would have probably went with something flashier and busy because that's who I was as a younger version of me. I am glad I've matured because this subway tile is perfect. I bought the tile at Menards and we got the sheets of tile rather than individual. It was easier and faster to work with which is saying a lot because this project took FOREVER. It was by far the most labor intensive project we've ever done to date.

Before starting the tile we did cut the hole for our kitchen sink.



I don't have a lot of pictures of this mostly because I had to go back to the store to buy a new sink. The one we had purchased was missing a part or had a dent...I can't remember! But I had to go back to check that our sink would work. It was the same sink as before just 3" deeper. Again if I did this over again I think I would have went with 1 bowl vs. 2. That's a hard choice. I also had already ordered the sink clips online so this sink would work with the butcher block.

My father in law and husband drilled 4 holes with the thickest drill bit they had then used the jigsaw to cut out the hole for the sink (they traced the hole using the sink or a template that was provided). It came out great! Except for a bit of an indent into the wood from the jigsaw bouncing. PRO TIP: Use some cardboard around your edge to prevent that from happening.

After the hole was cut, we laid out some plastic and got to work. I had purchased pre-mixed mortar. We followed some different blogs and youtube videos and this part was pretty easy. Work in small areas so it doesn't dry out, and keep it level. Simple enough.






Every time I see these pictures part of me regrets not using a darker grout. I went with the whitest of white mostly to hide imperfections. The grouting was the worst part for us and I think it was mostly because we had to mix the grout ourselves and did not have the proper tools so the consistency was wrong and while we followed the package directions to let it sit before wiping the tile with a wet rag that was the wrong choice and it did not come off easily.

I don't have pictures of this because like I said, it went fast and it was not pretty. We realized pretty quickly that the grout was setting fast so we were able to get it off of the area behind the sink but for the rest it was too late. We spent the rest of the night scraping each tile.

Here is the finished product:





The grout haze was a real pain. I went to the Tile Shop to buy grout haze remover and I swear Windex did a better job. The picture above it before I caulked the edge below the subway tile.

Using a tile saw was terrible, the grout job could have been way cleaner but in the end I really like it. It looks 'finished' and so much better than had we just left the drywall with no back splash. We also learned a ton for if and when there is a next time.

Fast forward to today. I took these pictures after getting a new phone with a much better camera a few days ago. One year our from the reno, two years out from the first time the cabinets were painted.













And Just for a reminder:

Untouched Kitchen

Phase 1

Three years in the making, but I am beyond glad we did it and we did it all ourselves. Saved a TON of time and money. Happy DIY'ing.

We also love our chalkboard paint inside the cabinets. I had two bare cabinets I had never drawn on and I told my husband I wanted some dumb puns! Well he surprised me with these winners and I'm never taking them down.

Kitchen Reno Part 2 Butcher Block

Our kitchen remained like that, just painted cabinets, thrown together floating shelves and a cracked laminate countertop for probably another whole year. Then I jumped in to work on the sunroom and when I painted our door a dark gray, I had a vision. I didn't hate the gray I had on the cabinets I just thought it looked a little bland
.
It was supposed to be 2 shades darker than the wall color but with the lighting in our house it looked like it matched the wall color. (The wall is painted between the cabinet and the shade) So I did what ever young person does in this day and age. I posted the picture of one cabinet painted and asked if anyone thought it looked too dark.


Everybody responded well to it so I thought alright! Off to the races. I should add that I used a small sample of this color that I had from the door to paint my lowers. I did not buy ProClassic and it was in satin. I plan to re-do these cabinets with semi-gloss using proclassic. It is worth it as these have not held up as well as the uppers.



This is a good after. They looked awesome. They photographed more black than gray but man are they pretty. I finally convinced my husband after 3 long years of having these butcher block slabs in our possession to attempt to rip them and make them work as counter tops. I called around locally to see how much it would cost to pay someone to rip them for us and it was somewhere around $500 dollars. WHHHHAT. After looking around online I did see where you could cut the butcher block with a circular saw and a guide but you should invest in a nicer saw blade. I went to Home Depot and bought the Diablo blade and one spring day while Chris was asleep I went in the garage and did it myself. I bought a nice long guide and it was really not that big of a deal after all! Fast forward to 2015 Chris and I had a whole week off work and it took every bit of that week to get it done, but we did it.

Step 1: Remove old countertops

It's good to have a strong yet thin man to get in these awkward positions that I certainly could not fit in. HAH. 

After removing the existing counter tops which of course was way harder than we thought it would be we moved on to measuring and cutting the butcher block. I had already ripped them to size and sealed them.  I did this to save time. The biggest mistake we made was leaving the factory edge. The edges are rounded so where our two seams met, we had to use a lot of wood filler and the seam is noticeable. I sealed our butcher block with Enduro-Var from General Finishes which was recommended to me at Woodcraft. I was planning on using Waterlox which I had heard about on numerous blogs but wasn't looking forward to the smell or having to wait a day between each coat. Especially since I would have wanted 7 coats! Enduro-Var dried within 2-3 hours, and can be reapplied in 4. There is very little smell and it had just a slight amber color added to it so I didn't even stain these boards. I sanded them and applied the Enduro-Var. 3 coats on the bottom and 6-7 on the top. I used a plain foam brush and 1 quart was enough. It had held up beautifully! No stains, no water marks, nothing. I HIGHLY recommend finding Enduro-Var and using it. That product is one of the reasons I am even bothering to blog this kitchen reno, I saw very little information on anything other than waterlox and wanted to spread the word on Enduro-Var. BTW General Finishes doesn't know I exist, I'm not pimping their product for anything other than my own love. 

Installing these puppies we decided not to do mitered cuts. We worked out what would be best without having to buy additional boards. We had 3 boards 6 ft long. They make better methods for joining boards but we didn't want to spend any additional money at this point. Go visit this blog for tite joint fasteners. 

Added Support

We had to build up the back corner to hold the counter tops level also.

We found these to hold the butcher block together and keep them from pulling apart


Chris screwed in the other two from underneath the counter tops it was impossible to carry them in pre-screwed.

The seam from hell.

the Underside of the countertop with the supports we built.

Counter tops installed! Part 3 will round up these posts with some subway tile and how our kitchen looks today!

Three Season Room Part 2

I really love our three season room. I would love it a lot more if it were a proper sunroom but it is not in our budget anytime soon to make that happen. In the meantime I will continue to enjoy this room for 9 months a year and for 3 months a year fill it to the brim with crap.

We were given an escrow with the house to supply floors so we found the cheapest floors we could and got to work. That was actually a lot of fun. I remember listening to music out there, laying on the portion of the completed floor on my large stuffed giraffe and watching Chris work late into the night cutting and placing the tile. I have always loved watching him work. Something really attractive about a man who can work with his hands, amirite! We laughed and joked and just made the best of it.

He was concerned that the direct sun could loosen the tiles on the floor so that's where the curtains came in. They transformed the room. Even though they are technically ugly, they actually have added a lot of personality to the room. Thank God for this website and their instructions on DIY curtain rods out of conduit. Otherwise this would have potentially cost hundreds of dollars. Patience not being a virtue I own, I didn't spray paint them or add fancy decorative ends though. Just cut them, hung them all while Chris was asleep so I could really surprise him.

After being in this room a few years, I started to get really tired of the yellow. It was fun and different but after growing up a bit I really just wanted something classy and timeless. I found blog after blog that had done plank walls. I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

This also provided a cover up to one of the biggest issues in the room. When we moved in, before we took pictures :( the largest wall had a big patch job from where French doors were removed from our bedroom, to the 3 season room. No paint, just drywall. Well the rest of the wall had texture so I was at a loss of what to do.

I tried to add texture but that was just a ridiculous amount of work, so I just painted the whole room the deep yellow color instead to 'mask' it. If I had known about chalkboard paint that would have been an ideal cover up!

Fast forward to coming across the plank wall. PERRRRFECT.

I only chose one (smaller) wall to start with. 1. because I like to really drag out projects so we don't spend a ton of money and time in one room 2. this way I can gauge if it's going to work and turn out how I want before going in whole-ass.



So here she is, see those seems? That sagging corner round at the top? Oh man, she's a beaut.

Step One: Paint

I followed this tutorial from Jenna Sue Design Blog as a guide (one of many) and they all said to paint the wall the same color as your boards so my white planked wall didn't end up having this mustard yellow peeking out.



I went ahead and decided while using this primer on the wall to paint our gross yellow door too. The frame was a mess after one of our cats (I'm guessing Piper, it's always Piper) used the frame as a scratching post. And I don't think it had more than one coat of paint around the frame!

Step Two: Cut

I went to both Lowes and Home Depot for the 1/4" plywood to create the planks. Lowes was able to cut them down to the 6" strips I wanted but the plywood available cost a few dollars more. I ran out of wood mid wall so I ended up at Home Depot since they are usually a bit cheaper but they wouldn't cut them smaller than 12". The stores are less than a mile from each other but at this point I just wanted the wood. I hate when a project is stalled. I should probably use that as a lesson to improve my project planning and measuring but meh.

I bought more than enough wood and came home to rip the 12" to 6" to complete the wall.

Step Three: Attach

My dad had generously gifted me his nail compressor gun that had been sitting in his barn for years and years. I was visiting my sister Miranda and was in the car with my dad and just randomly asked, do you happen to own a nail gun I could borrow? To my surprise he said "Yes, I do actually. Don't borrow it - just keep it." SWEET. I love my dad.



Bye Bye you stupid texture

Chris again was unaware of this project and I wanted to surprise him and keep him from trying to stop me... so when he was out mowing the grass I set up my nail gun and tackles attaching these boards one handed.  They run about 4 feet wide so not impossible to hold and they are light. I drew a line using a level to get started and went from the top down. the top is angled so I didn't start at the very top, just the first straight board I could hang.



This is where I ran out of wood...



Primed door & old yellow wall



Lowes on the right
Home Depot on the left

Chris fixing our party lights



So I just worked my way through the wall with a nickel in between to keep the equal spacing. Up and down on the chair. I was really proud of my cut around the outlet since I've never had any obstacles before to work around! And my angle. I can't remember now how I worked that out but I believe I measured and traced with butcher paper to get it as close to perfect as possible.

Step Four: Wood Filler on all those holes

After your wall is attached with a billion nails. Seriously, some of these kept popping off because of the way the board may curve and not lie as flat as you would like. I fixed this by adding a shit ton of nails. I didn't adhere these boards to the wall because I didn't want something that permanent on a wall that may or may not have moisture issues in the future. This room is pretty much a hot mess under the seams I fear.

I then went back over every single nail hole with wood filler to be sanded later so my paint looked as good as possible. I didn't want a bunch a holes to show.



Holes holes holes, so many holes



After the sanding

Step Five: Paint

At this point it was pretty simple. Paint it white & we decided to replace the corner round molding rather than just paint it. I say we, I mean me. I have a habit of naturally including others with we. I'm just such a naturally inclusive person I guess. ;)



1 Coat



With the new corner round that I left natural to break up the wall. It's so pretty.

For comparison sake, the new plank wall vs. yellow wall & my newly gray door! That I never did go back and finish those bottom sections that just have one coat. whoops.

Step Five: Hide Them Seams!

As you can tell in the pics, my cutting & nailing was far from perfect. I have no time for perfect. That's just not my style. Much to my husbands annoyance. He is the perfectionist, I'm the completer. The get-shit-doner. I was pretty tired of this wall at this point so I went to Lowes or Home Depot I can't remember now and bought pre-painted, sanded, plastic? wood strips to hide my seams where the wood met. I brought three home and cut to size. A few nails and she was good to go.

This whole plank wall took me maybe two weekends if I remember correctly. We finished this in the spring of 2015 and plan on tackling the much bigger wall this spring! I'm insanely in love with this wall.  You've come along way baby!

Update: I have since built a farmhouse table for this room. Here's a snap from a few days ago. I have since planked a wall in our living room instead of finishing that bright yellow wall.