The Kitchen Project (3)

The Fuzz had planned to get started on setting tile the next morning.  But it turned out that the plastic stuff was not firmly glued down.  In spite of the fact that the heavy tile had been laid over it to help keep it down, it was buckled up in the center of each piece.

However, the pieces glued to the edges were fine.

The Fuzz and His Sweetie concluded that perhaps not enough adhesive had been applied.  The fiber backing had soaked up a fair amount.

So...

The plastic was pealed up to be re-glued.

This was not easy to do, but finally gotten up, and re-glued.

Again, heavy weights were used, and much pounding with the mallet.

And then it was back to town for a few hours of heat and fresh air.

On their return, it was discovered that although there was much improvement, there was still a bit of buckling.

But by now The Fuzz and His Sweetie decided to go ahead with setting tile, figuring that the weight of the tile might hold it down until the mastic set.

The wall was done first.  This seemed like the best approach since the counter top wouldn't get messed up this way.

They had chosen these "mosaic" type tiles for the back splash.

Each piece was 12"x12" and made up of 2" square tiles attached to a mesh to hold it all together.

It was easy to cut sections to fit where needed-

As long as they were multiples of 2".

This actually went pretty well.

After the main pieces were up, The Fuzz's Sweetie handled fitting the smaller pieces at the edges, and around the electrical outlets while The Fuzz cut the tiles.

(There will be more said on this later!)

And here is a look at the back splash at this stage.

These larger (12"x24") tiles had been chosen for the actual counter top.  This would reduce the number of grout lines, and provide larger, smoother work surfaces.

And this went down pretty well also...

except for around the sink cut out.

It proved to be impossible for The Fuzz to make clean cuts on the smaller pieces with the tile cutter he had.

He did the best he could, but probably should have gone back to the Home Improvement Store and had them cut these on their special tile cutting saw.

(There will be more on this also.)

But as can be seen, it was late now, and he just wanted to be finished.