The Last Tiling Job

Hopefully this is the last one, anyway.

We had thought about doing the whole wall, but it was too much hassle and cost so we just tiled the kitchen backsplash and the area between the stove and the vent hood

Steff working the invaluable saw

Preparation

Nearly finished

It's since been painted and some shelves have gone up. More pictures to follow...

Counters

These are hard to install. It's easy enough, although nerve-wracking to install the lengths of material, but there  are some catches.

The rounded edge does not mesh with the side of another piece of material when creating an 'L' shape so you have to trim that off, if you do that, you have to mitre the corner to make the 2 rounded profiles join cleanly.

The other pain in the ass is that if you cut the top with the plastic side up, it chips out badly. You have to turn it upside down and cut it like that, it still chips, however, but less so.

Then you have to join them. They're too heavy for glue, and screws are very difficult to get in due to the shallow angle, they'd come out to easily and don't apply enough pressure. The answer is to use 'mitre bolts' I didn't that that's what they're called, but the shop lady understood my ramblings.

I spent hours measuring and cutting the shape i needed into the tops, then brought them together, upside down and spent ages more routing out the channels for the bolts:

Channel routed out and the bolt ready to go in

Closed up and glued

We got a range from Sears for less than half price due to damage, and a dishwasher from Craiglist, and this is how things look now. 

Better than this, I think. 

Proto-kitchen

Back to Ikea.

Last time we went we went en masse, on a Saturday and regretted it. We had to take advantage of a soon-to-end sale on kitchens so we ordered with a friend to get the discount. It was worth it, but it took 8 hours to get the stuff ordered, collected and separated into 2 piles. 

This time we were smarter and went on a Wednesday evening. We weren't even there for 2 hours and spent time browsing the stuff we don't need, as is required at Ikea, and got to the collection area to find our stuff waiting. Unprecedented!

Our Suburban carried it home so work could begin:

Plenty of room

The prepared space

Cabinets installed. Rooney disinterested

Now we need some appliances and I have to figure out how to install the counter-top. More to come...

Laundry room update

So we painted it and put down the flooring. Looks a bit better, I think. 

Drywall

Now it's starting look like a real house. 

Here's a few pictures of the place with drywall and with primer. 

Bedroom in primer

Hall towards kitchen

Kitchen and hall

Hall and living room before primer