How a Mole Hill turns into a Mountain

Some projects just beg to be done and it's hard for me to understand why in the 21 years between the time my house was built and the time I bought it someone else hadn't already tackled the project.  But it's probably for the best, because their taste might not suit me anyway if green and gold Japanese wallpaper is any indication.  See the Half way makeover of a outdated guest bathroom post for more on that subject. 

I have an L-shaped hallway that starts in the entry way goes past the master and guest bedroom and bath and ends in the family room with easy access to the breakfast room on both ends. In order to reach either downstairs bathroom in my house you must go down this hallway. For 25 years this hallway was covered in CARPET.  I am not a fan of carpet, but when it's the only way to get to a bathroom and you have a pool in your backyard, it's REALLY a bad idea.  Plus hallways are such high traffic areas, that carpet in a hallway IS A  REALLY BAD IDEA.

This project didn't start out with the hallway (exactly).  It started with me finding an amazing deal on some leftover tile.  :)  18x18 porcelain with coordinating mosaics and several pieces of granite tile for $50.  We could put this in our guest bathroom!  And maybe the hallway too!  Visions of no more carpet in the hallway danced in my head! 

So I brought this tile home to my hero husband, SuperDave.  I asked him to figure out how 'we' were going to make this work.  He spent some serious time at the computer drawing up layouts for the tileso we could do the bathroom and the hallway.  It just wasn't enough.

  The mole hill started to grow.

So we started with bathroom.  I wish I had a before shot, but it was so ugly I never took it's picture.  Imagine non-descript white 4x4 tile with white grout set on the diagonal. That was before.

The bathroom turned out so well, the carpet in the hallway looked even worse.

So I thought, no problem we'll just buy some more of the large tiles or something similar that will COORDINATE.  I'm big on coordinating, not so much on matchy matchy.  We soon discovered these tiles were not a standard size and we could not buy another brand the same thickness and dimensions.  I finally tracked down a supplier and MIGHT  have been able to get more if I was willing to drive all the way across the DFW metroplex.  Another thing I'm not a fan of - driving across DFW, so I set out to find another option.  We eventually bought more mosaics because I found a local source. 

This project was now officially a mountain.

AND THEN....SuperDave being the genius DIYer that he is (not to mention an engineer and my resident math whiz) created a layout. Then BLESS HIS HEART he spent a LONG LONG time on his knees laying tile and making countless trips to cut tile until he finished my project of tiling the bath and hallway.  You see why this man is my HERO? 

I'm the grouting "professional" at our house.  He cuts and lays tile and I do the grout.  So when it was all down, it was my turn to go to work.  We both had plenty of aches and pains from this job.  He also replaced the baseboard and someone soon (soon being a relative term that means before I die) I need to caulk along the top of the baseboard because apparently that is my area of expertise also (or my husband is just SO done with this project.) 

Here's a lovely picture - before the baseboard was installed!

I smile every time I walk down this hallway because it is so BE-U-TI-UL and easy to clean.

We eventually recovered from the

bruises and sore muscles

and are really glad to be (almost) done.

Happy Friday!

Laura