Tiling, Take 1

We've known for a while now that we would have a lot of tiling ahead of us: the laundry closet, both bathrooms, and the backsplash in the kitchen. With the laundry room freshly painted, and knowing that the floor would almost completely be covered with appliances, we figured that was the best (and most inconspicuous) place to start.

After some research and a very helpful discussion with a friendly Lowe's employee, we felt ready to gather our supplies and dive in.

Much to Barb's chagrin, the first step in this process was to remove the washer and dryer that she'd just worked so hard to get back in place. Step two was to remove the baseboards she'd just worked so hard to get painted. Oh well, it's all for the good of the cause, right?

With the space now (re)emptied, we got rid of the last piece of the dreaded linoleum we'd been using as a barrier between the washer/dryer and the subfloor.

The next step was to install the cement board, which would act as a water barrier and would help to ensure we were tiling atop a level floor. About a hundred screws later, we were ready to proceed.

We were ready to lay out the tiles and mark them all for cutting. Now, we'd done a lot of research about how to best cut tile. Would a score-and-snap system be precise enough? Do we really need to pay for a wet saw? Would we want to rent the same saw three different times for all of our various projects? Happily, our questions were moot once we found out Lowe's will cut your tile FOR FREE! Just mark it, bring it in, and voila! Twenty minutes later, we had our tiles all cut to size for only the cost of the gas it took us to drive there. Perfect!

Now for the fun part! We mixed together the mortar and started spreading and scoring it. Carefully, we laid the tile and put in the little spacers to make sure everything stayed straight.

The next day, once the tile had set, we came back with the grout. After removing the spacers, we just mashed the grout in between the tiles and wiped away the excess, making sure to clean the tiles as much as possible.

And in one short weekend, the floors had transformed! 

We've decided tiling is WAY easier than ripping out three layers of linoleum, removing thousands of staples, laying padding, and installing laminate flooring. This was just the boost of confidence we needed to tackle the bigger tiling projects still ahead of us. It has been decided: Spring Break, we redo the downstairs bathroom! 

...Here's the only problem: we (purposefully) tiled over the dryer vent, which was precariously run through the floor, into the crawl space, and outside at the exact height where we want to eventually extend the deck. So, even though the laundry room now looked beautiful, there was no way to run the dryer yet. We value function in a laundry room, so clearly we needed a new plan.

The idea was to raise the vent completely so it went out the wall directly instead of making a U under the house. First thing's first, let's remove the vinyl siding and see what we're dealing with.

We measured as best we could with only theoretical plans for the deck extension, and started cutting. The only hole saw we had access to was too small, so we expanded it with the help of Charles' jig saw and Bill's old Dremel.

Once the hole was the right size both inside and outside the house, we had to cut a similar hole in the vinyl siding.

Once that was done, it was a mere matter of inserting the aluminum tube, reattaching the siding, and replacing the exterior vent cover.

Oh, and "patching" the old hole.

Don't worry, it's temporary. Theoretically one day the deck will extend over this area, so that whole piece of siding will be gone anyway. But, priorities! We have working laundry again! YAY!