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Home Tiling Project 2006

Lori decided we needed to get rid of the aging carpet and replace it with ceramic tile.  So, I bought a tile cutter, among other miscellaneous tools, and hundreds of pounds of ceramic tile. 

We began by centering the hallway with the rest of the house.

I have to admit, the most difficult part about this project was removing the linoleum in the kitchen, bathroom, and washroom.  I rented an electric linoleum remover, but the blade continued to fail.  So, I ended up removing most of the linoleum on my hands and knees with a 1 1/2" scraper blade with a screwdriver handle.  My hands were sure tired when I got done.

This is the completed hallway. 
Next, we moved everything from one side of the living room to the other, and started in again.  The nice thing about having a monolithic (cement) floor is that the tiles go on pretty good.  Making sure the floor is flat was the most difficult part here. 
These pieces aren't glued in yet.  They are just set.  In fact, I haven't even cut out the corner pieces for the 3" square corners.  We chose the diagonal pattern due to the amount of open space and we wanted to break up the square appearance of the living room.
Here we have the corner pieces in place and everything is glued down. 
This is just another view. 
Oh, and this is the pile of furniture.  And, no, the TV doesn't work.  It would have been nice though.  We could have camped out in the kitchen and watched a little tube.  I worked most days until well after dark, so I really doubt I would have been much for TV anyway.
Next, we grouted the openings between the tiles and cleaned up the mess.  The cleanup of the grout has to be done right away and really is labor intensive.
Here we have moved all the furniture from one side of the living room to the other.
And here we are working on the kitchen and dining room area.  We were so glad to be done.  If I had to do this over again I would do it again.  What I mean is, we had a bid on the job for $6,700 and we did it ourselves for close to $2,500; including the tools.  However, now I know the labor portion of tiling and they definitely earn their money.