Sunday, October 21, 2007

Montauk Black Brazilian Slate

That is what we installed in the kitchen. 12x12 tiles that vary slightly in texture, but are mostly even. So far we have only installed the tiles which did not need to be cut to fit in place. We borrowed a wet tile saw from our plumber, but Joe refuses to let me set it up in the house. We just started laying the tile on Saturday and we couldn't walk on it today because the thinset (mortar) needs 24 hours to set up before you can walk on it or grout. Right now (11pm-ish) is 24 hours, but I'm pretty sure our neighbors would not like us very much if we started sawing tiles in the driveway right about now. :) So hopefully tomorrow we will be able to get all the tiles cut before the sun goes down, and then come in and install them. Another 24 hours later, we will be able to grout the entire kitchen.

I can't wait. Joe and I spent today dancing around the edges of the kitchen in the untiled spots, trying to get the toaster oven, or (more importantly) the oreos. :) It will be nice to walk across the kitchen in a straight line.

Here they are...the full tiles we installed, and the four out of the billion little spacers maintaining the width of the grout lines.


2 comments:

sydelbow said...

When they laid the tile in my old house, they put the little spacers flat. But then I think they didnt know how to get them out. So they left them in. Which was retarded btw. Because you can see some of them through the grout.

Also, hot tile.

Also also, how the hell do you cut tile by yourself. What saw is that!?! You own that!??!

Allie said...

Yeah, they make a tool to take out the spacers if you want to put them in flat. But they're cheap to buy and it's much easier to just put them in sticking up like we did.

I LOVE the tile. Love it.

Cutting tile is easy with a tile saw. It's sort of like a radial arm saw, only the blade housing doesn't move. It has a diamond blade which cuts just about anything, and a pump which squirts water on the tail and blade to reduce heat and dust.

We do not own it. :( We borrowed it from our plumber.

I will take a picture of it the next time we set it up.