Arched Walkways

In my opinion if you are going to renovate it is a good idea to try and match some of the character that comes along with the house. Have you ever walked into an old house that someone has totally taken the character right out of? It just doesn’t feel right! 

In our 1953 bungalow that we have been updating for the last 6 months, we have been struggling to keep some of its character. We really wanted to open it up as much as possible to bring in a more modern feel. Now by doing this we got rid of two door frames and almost doubled each opening. One from the porch to the living room and the other from living room to kitchen. This now enables you to see straight through to the back porch from the front porch!

While in the process of doing this we wanted to keep some of the character of the house. Instead of simply making a basic “modern” opening we added arches to them. Now we have what I would call a “modern-classic” emphasis! We really enjoy the look and it actually wasn’t that hard.

If you look closely at one of the pictures you can see when we installed the arches. I actually found these, thanks to my brother, at a store for sale. They are ready to be installed and they sell different sizes! So at about $25/set it was way easier then trying to form them out of a 2x10 or something of the sort!

So as you prepare or think about your renovation to come consider your homes’ character and try to keep it as much as you can!

These are the preformed arches with actual drywall paper as its cover and they are the same width as
drywall making it super easy to match up!

We wanted to define the arches more. We did this by
painting the underside with a dark grey.

How to Tile Your Backsplash

Our whole kitchen started off by looking very bland(as you can see). Pretty much all the colors here are yellow and brown in one shade or another! So we figured it needed a nice uplift in both color and style. I will take you through the steps I took to get to the end result that my wife(and I!) wanted.

First is the Demolition. 

This is a pretty basic step. You need to first decide on what is staying and what is going.  This will help you from going too far! What I have found is that once you start ripping things apart it almost feels like everything should just go! In our case we kept the cupboard structure and refinished them but got rid of the counter top. 

Also during this process it is a good idea to measure and order product as it may take up to 6 weeks to arrive. If time isn’t an issue take your time to find something you really like. We(meaning my wife!) picked out 3 different colors in a 4x16 inch tile, black, white and apple green.

Second is the Preparation

Preparation is what I consider the most important step. You want to make sure that everything you want to accomplish can be accomplished before you start tiling. A good example of this is that I wanted under cabinet lighting, so i had to run the wiring and install a new wall switch to make this happen. Obviously this is a lot easier when everything is apart and a mess!

Another part of preparation is actually prepping the wall physically to accept the tile. This may include checking for bumps and straightening them out. It may also include checking with your tile store about which mortar best suits the application (i.e: unmodified, rapid set, etc...).

Last is the Application

Figure out the pattern. You can do this by simply laying all the tiles out on the floor and flip-flopping them around until you get something you like. One of the more important steps here is to figure out from what point your pattern is going to start. For us it was the center of the sink, the pattern evolved from there.

Take your time with this step. It should be one of the easier with all the right tools. Be sure your mud is the proper consistency(not too runny). You will want either a laser level or just make sure the counter is level and go off of it.

The result will be amazing when you make a plan and execute it well. We really enjoy how ours turned out, hope you enjoyed the pictures!

My Main Bathroom

  

Ripping apart the bathroom was probably one of the harder parts of this reno.

Especially when we got to the "tank-of-a-tub"!! 

Take a look at the pictures and they will walk you through the renovation.

My Brother working on the plumbing through the plumbing hole in the spare room!

Just for clarification we did re-insalate and installed
poly before this step!

Next time I use Rdex 8+9 i won't be using as much tape(grey stuff) as I did in this
shot. It was more annoying than anything, mainly I would use it on
extremely wide gaps.

Making sure I did everything right!

In-wall niche. Very difficult to mud!

This is at about 90% completion, still have to grout and
install the vanity!

Some things I wish I would’ve done differently:

1. After installing the tile we realized that it would’ve been a lot easier had we removed the walls and installed all new ones. This would be beneficial because the walls in this 1953 house were not exactly straight or level(plaster)! And since we used a 12x24 tile it didn’t turn out so great at some points.
2. During the installation I noticed I shouldn’t have finalized the in-wall shelves until the tile was further up the wall. This would allow me to position one full tile width below the shelf instead of having to cut all my tile around them. And for those of you who know what I am talking about, this takes a lot more time out of your day. But as anxious as I was, I decided that getting the water proofing compound up was more important!
3. In the thought process and budget analysis I wish we would’ve had a new window installed. Although not a critical mistake, now to do this would mean a mass of mess and I think we have had enough of that!! And if in a couple years we redo the rest of them, we may have to leave this one until we redo the tile again. :(
4. Before we started we should’ve picked out the border tiles(the round glass ones). Had we done this I would’ve loved to incorporate some into the flooring. But here we are stuck thinking about it in the aftermath! Maybe I would've just put one double-line of it someone in the floor. I feel like this could’ve pulled the whole bathroom together.... but oh-well!!

Thanks for taking a look! Fully finished photos are soon to come as we are in the process of grouting and installing the vanity and mirror.