Bathroom Reno, Part Deux

I've been continuing to work on the floor in the ragged corners of my time, but I think I've reached the midpoint of the project. Since I last wrote, I put down and then ripped up the mosaic tile border I had planned. *Sigh* I failed to think in 3 dimensions when I planned the floor and the mosaic tiles aren't as thick as the marble ones, which would have left a nice ledge around the outside to trip over at night. So I scraped it all up while silently cursing myself and resolved to use the marble over the whole floor. Here's the border that almost was: 

Oh well. I kept most of the mosaic tiles, so maybe I can reuse them in a table or a piece of art or something. 

The good news is that I finished cutting tiles today and have now laid, mortared, and leveled all the pieces. Whew. 

 

 

It may look a little blue in the photo, but it's "Grecian white" marble. Now I have to let the last pieces cure for at least 24 hours before I grout the floor. After that I can start putting things back in the bathroom and finally get the new toilet and vanity installed. It'll be nice to have the boxes and toilet out of our dining room, but the cats are really going to miss the vanity box! They like being up high on it, and it's their favorite new nap spot.

Based on my experience doing this project, I have a few nuggets of advice for anyone thinking of doing their own tile project.

• Invest in a tile saw. If you're super coordinated and can have everything ready ahead of time, maybe you could rent one and save some money, but I got one at a Black Friday sale and will use it for several projects.
• Wear eye protection when you cut tile. In this case, eye pro is not just for suckers and mama's boys. Stuff will fly off the saw no matter how careful you are, and even if you used the snap kind of cutter it's a good idea to cover your eyes. 
• You can make curved hole with a straight saw- it just takes some time and requires some ingenuity 
• Leveling is important and annoying. Make sure you have a 3 or 4 foot level and a little one for tight corners and small pieces. 
• Cut your tile with the "good" side down. The marble I used usually chipped a bit at the end of the cut. Cutting with the rough side up ensures that you don't ruin your piece of tile with a chip on the side that shows. 

That's the news for now! Next time I blog hopefully it'll be the beauty shots of the finished room!