So sorry, that I have not been able to be brilliant of insightful, reactionary, or funny this week..alas, I have been in home improvement hell.

After two weeks of never ending futzing on the Jeep from hell, Rye is satisfied and we started our waiting project..the kitchen floor.

Now my “old” kitchen floor was painted wood. Havinghardwood floors in the kitchen are a plus to some, but I am a white kitchen kind of girl and I just don;t feel clean with wood in the kitchen. When I fist moved in this house..egads..9 years ago, I had to redo EVERYTHING..I should do befores and afters some time..you would dig it. Anyhoo, I painted the floor just to get by..haha. SO nine years later, we are getting to it.

The origianl paint job, I liked. It was a nice play on a black and white checkerboard, but more white field and had some bright red accent squares. But if you ave ever lived with a white kitchen floor, then you know that it never looked clean…ever. Notice in this picture the actual true white of the paper next to the filth encrusted floor. Hence, I grew to hate it. Plus I hate polyurethan, so I have to wax it which happens like…never, so the paint begins to chip and it is just too colonial for me. I like a kitschy kitchen. So I wanted to redu the pattern, but not in paint on wood, and I had to dump the white.

I choose VCT tiles because they come in great colors, are cheap, easy to cut into design, and have a 50’s linolum feel. The white begame a greeenish gray that matches the wallpaper and the pattern expands for a 9x9inch base square to a 12x12inch.

We also had to put in a sub floor to make sure the tiles don’t crack. I am really lookig forward to a floor that is smooooooooth. No place for dirt to hide.

So yesterday we demo’d and Rye did about 2/3 of the subfloor. I love my husband, but he is no Mr. Bob Villa. The rip outs make him crazy. He gets all twitchy and pissy. He complains about how horrible everything is. As he ripped the base moulding, he consistantly freaked out and gave me dirts looks. I guess it was a big pain in the ass that the moulding was caulked to the wall and the floor, but what was I to do. I am no carpenter, and the floor was all uneven as were the walls. I can’t have gaps! Caulk is my friend.
And he did want to rip out the tile in the mud room area. But I had to. Garin helped towards the end. Now the kitchen and mud room will have the same surface. That was a huge pain.

Today we actually started to lay tiles. Got about a fourthed maybe done. It was the start. I had to lay out the design again before cutting and glueing so I had a better visual. It will be fantastic.
I even tried to get someone to cover my shift at work, because if I kept on going, I would finish this night, but alas KellyKelly was on Spring break in Boston, so I stopped.
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Today, once I was done with freelancing drafting at Barbs, and hanging out with the kiddos, I went back to work. And, true to my compulsive nature, finished!! And I only sliced my finger with the utilty knife onces!

Well, except fot the red inlays because there was no way I was going to buy a box of 45 when I need like 4. So I ordered four samples instead and they haven’t gotten here yet. So I am not totally done, but..I kinda am. Yeah, now let’s see how long it takes me to cut in the silly red squares. The red will make it beter, but I am pretty pleased. Granted we have to put the mouldings all back, and the dishwasher is still in the living room, but I like it. And it’s not even polished yet!!