Sigh of Relief...

One of the biggies on our "to-do" list was tile the kitchen backsplash.... Easier said then done. Much easier.

Friday night was planning night. We schemed, plotted and planned this thing to death. Once you start tiling, there is no going back. We purchased the remaining supplies (tile was already in the garage) and headed home to start the next morning.

Before Photos -

 Saturday was absolutely sunny and beautiful so we avoided the elephant in the kitchen and went for a hike with our friends and their puppy. It was good to get some energy out of Bear before starting the project anyways.

We took the "easy" way out for the backsplash tiling. There is this new stuff you can buy, instead of using mortar you put tacky paper up on the wall to hold the tile in place. (Approaching the point of no return) Much more expensive, much, much, MUCH smaller mess. Worth it for the sanity. Once we got the tacky paper up we cut and placed the tiles. (At the point of no return) It was hard to work under the cabinets, keep straight tile lines and NOT hit our heads. Note to self - backsplashes are way harder then showers.

Tacky Paper -

Tile -

Sunday morning was grout time! Both of us kind of got cold feet and a little nervous. Luckily one of the guys in Chris' unit is a professional contractor. We considered it our "phone a friend" option. There was a little tension because at this point we were well beyond the point of no return. No matter what happened, for better or worse, we were going to have a tiled backsplash....

Chris grouted, I sponged and hand cleaned each little glass tile (in retrospect - do not use sanded grout on glass tile - duh). We worked HARD for about 3 1/2 hours, once you start there is no stopping. I didn't get too many photos of this process because it is messy!

Grouting -

Once we finished we stepped back and - SIGH OF RELIEF - it looks amazing!!
(It was hard to get good pictures - the lighting is the best in the kitchen)

A few details remain (caulking, new window sill and water proofing) but... close enough to enjoy the fruits of our labor :) This was by far the hardest project we've done yet. But we took the leap and it looks great. It wiped us both out for the rest of the evening and dinner was served out of the pizza box on the coffee table.

Alright - check this off our home improvement list! Next up... master bath.