First the fourteen year old daughter and I removed the old carpet and brought it to the garbage dump. We removed the boots and coats and crap and cleaned and vacuumed and stuff. Let me just say here that my daughter is awesome and helpful and wonderful. She also has a great sense of humor.
We laid all the tiles out in a zany random pattern (in blatant defiance of all that Martha Stewart holds dear), and I trimmed them and fitted them nice and snug. I actually managed to not cut my fingers off. I did some very difficult cutting including around the water heater and the trap door into the crawlspace. You would be truly impressed.
Then came the gluing. This glue is supposed to be applied and allowed to dry and then you stick the tiles down. It started well but ended badly. I mean I have to do it in sections to avoid stepping on glue, right? But I ended up stepping in the glue anyways, and trekking glue footprints around the house. A few clever people on Twitter suggested putting sparkles on top of the footpirnt which I admit I actually considered. I blame the fumes.
And then I actually sat down on the upturned lid of the glue tub. FML.
That was two days ago. Now I'm in PAIN.
I ask my self WHY? Why am I tiling this floor? I should be paying someone else to do it for me. I should be lying around at a spa relaxing and enjoying life.
Wait, what? ....oh yeah. I do enjoy extreme home-deco. Dang.
The floor will look awesome. The trouble with an awesome looking floor is that the rest of the room now looks like crap. Should I spruce up the rest of the room? No, because that will make the rest of the HOUSE look like crap. Solution? Retrieve the old carpeting from the garbage dump and cover the dang floor with it!
What's your nightmare DIY story?
Share the sticky story.
Never DIY by yourself ;)
ReplyDeletehahahha....not quite laughing AT you, more WITH you, except I didn't blog the glue mishaps...just progress pics...
ReplyDeletehttp://stephi365photos.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-11-bathroom.html
DIY deco is tons of fun...and makes for some really fun times.
I love how you retell stories!! I think you need to post some pictures of the tile. I'm curious & am sure it looks fab!! :)
ReplyDeleteNathan - then it wouldn't be DIY, would it?
ReplyDeleteThe awful thing is that I'm still not finished. I hafta lay down two coats of sealer and 3 coats of wax. I'm done for!
The monument to my last tile job remains, five years later; my work jeans stuck to the wall behind the water heater. There isn't enough Goo Off in the work to unstick that mess.
ReplyDeleteWe're trying to make Ash a homemade, castle-themed, quazi-safety-bed. I mean, we're in a rental, so home improvements are a moot point. So what to do? Naturally, make some complicated furniture that can eventually move with us.
ReplyDeleteLove the animated tile! Very Partridge Family busish.
ReplyDeleteAlways watch DIY Channel, the key word being "watch"
Love the pic of the glue lid stuck to your butt! I bet the floor looks phenomenal!
ReplyDeleteWho the heck cares what Martha Stewart thinks anyway?! It sounds to me like that floor suits you to a "T" :) Remember what we said the other night, have everyone keep their eyes on the floor and they'll never notice the rest of the room, LOL
ReplyDelete(hmmm, it still won't let me comment under my Google profile)
Ah, the fumes...muse to so much creativity.
ReplyDeleteRalph - too bad the water heater is covering it up or I'd suggest putting a gorgeous gilt frame around it....or should I say guilt frame. Ha.
ReplyDeleteRhiannon - I want a castle-themed anything.
Shannon - I don't get that channel. Which explains a lot.
ReplyDeleteKathy - thanks hon. I would post a photo but the rest of the room now looks a wreck.
WOOHOO!! Just laid down the first coat of tile sealer.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the finished product!! I wish I had as much faith in myself to do something like that. I'd screw it all up!! LOL!!
ReplyDeleteHome decorating is like getting plastic surgery. Suddenly your face and boobs look great and the rest of you like crap. You end up having to do the whole shebang. DIY is better than hiring. I'm on handyman number 14. Last one showed up drunk and didn't finish the job, one before that was too busy crying over his wife leaving him, number 9 died, number 6 was caught rifling through the daughter's underwear drawer. I have a bathroom reno to do. Ugh. Thinking about it makes me want to sniff some of that glue. Save me some, okay?
ReplyDeleteI'm working on reflooring and painting my whole house so I feel your pain. Although I'm not using glue, paint is quite the saw dust adhesive... lol
ReplyDeleteI bet it looks lovely!
Well, ours wasn't so much house related as furniture related! After moving across the country with no furniture, we thought it was a brilliant idea to set to work making our own furniture in our apartment in the middle of blazing LA summer heat! There's nothing like choking on sawdust and stain fumes first thing in the morning to bring you closer together!
ReplyDeleteShelagh - I love your analogy to plastic surgery.
ReplyDeleteDeanna - it looks pretty good, even though I just found out that I used the wrong tiles...
LOL! Last year we painted the living room. Then youngest DS proceeded to put foot in green paint and track footprints all over the carpet. Those footprints are still there, and will be until we put new carpeting in! I say go for the shine.
ReplyDeleteHa ha this sounds like how I was recently. My husband went away and I thought I’d take up some DIY home decorating in his absence to up our house valuation (on a budget of course as we’re looking to move soon). But little did I know that tiling would be so difficult. It looked so easy in the video I looked up :(
ReplyDelete