…the marble tile backsplash kitchen project has been… interesting. *heh*
Warning: Renov tale. Skip if handymanish stuff gives you a rash. The voices in my head say I must go here…
So, 12″ marble tiles. That was cool, since the backsplash I was working on was just about 12.75″ tall (by almost exactly 15′ in length–4’+11′) with the area under the window over the sink ~8.75″. Worked out the 3/4 inch differential with an oak spacer (which I’ll “pickle” this weekend).
The “interesting” parts?
Cutting the freaking tiles. *sigh* I had made a decision to cover one straight run of just a hair over 11′ with whole times as much as possible (except for the 3′ under the sink window where I’d planned to use my tile cutter to trim 4″ off each tile–I’ll get back to that later). That meant I knew up front I’d be cutting at least one hole in a tile for an outlet (and cutting a notch out of another one for another outlet and notches out of two more for the left and right side of the window). Since the hole for the first outlet was offset only 1/2″ from the edge of the tile, and these tiles fracture pretty easily, I took it very, VERY carefully. Used a Dremel and a cutoff wheel. Yeh, I know, wrong tool. I have the carbide attachment to cut tile with, but I wanted more control, so… slow and tedious.
Still, the tiles got cut accurately. For the outlets and the sides of the window. That’s the good news. Bad news? *sigh* The tile cutter I’ve used successfully on up to 20″ ceramic tile just busted these marble tiles to pieces. *sheesh* I managed to end up with 4-4″ X 12″pieces and one good 8″ X 12″ piece. Oh, three of the 4″ x 12″ were in 2 or more pieces, but… Mr. Ingenuity (that’s me, in case you had any trouble making the connection ;-)) had a solution. Epoxy and marble dust from the Dremel work. *heh* Breaks disappeared; just more veining consonant with the rest of the tile.
And then… pressing the (properly-buttered :-)) 8″X 12″ piece onto the (properly-troweled :-)) adhesive, the tile cracked. *sigh* OK. Pressed a tad harder and brought some of the adhesive through the crack, wipe-down. Another vein, consistent with the rest of the tile. *whew* Oh, the adhesive is sanded so, no grouting! *yipee!*
So, all that’s left is a bit of deail work–pickling the oak (including the custom shoe molding I cut today), a little caulking, etc.
Feels nice to check one more lil honey-do off my list.
Pictures!!!
NIcole, the pics can wait on… the next kitchen project: the countertop. Oh, I also want to do the floor at one point, and my Wonder Woman has selected (and we bought the other day) a new paint color for 2 kitchen walls, but the floor can wait a couple of years, and the walls will probably get done after Thanksgiving, along with the countertop.
Until then, no pics.
(New kitchen faucet going in today, though. That’s a Good Thing.)
I’ll just admire you for the handymanish stuff. My handyman skills are woefully inadequate – probably due primarily to an all to typical lack of patience where it counts.
As I have admired your car mechanicking, Perri.
Patience and doing one’s homework and other prep in advance are key in doing handymanish kinds of thing, I’ve found. It’s imperative that one have the tools and supplies to do the job well (whether they’re the “right” tools or not, as my lil Dremel experiment demonstrates :-)) and practice using the tools. In my recent years doing more “handymanish” kinds of things, I’ve fallen back more and more on my childhood years following my paternal grandfather around as he did either master carpentry or just handyman stuff (they differed: he was just “handymanish” with electrical and plumbing work).
It also helps to think things through extensively, or at least it helps me. I have a lil entry project (a tiling job, mostly) that I just “solved” as I was working on the kitchen backsplash… ideas percolating was I did repetitive detail cutting on some tiles. (the problem was one of transition to the laminate flooring beyond where I want to tile; I didn’t want to use the crappy, IMO, pre-made transitions available at Lowes, and just thought through the cuts I’d need to make on the table saw, avoiding using a table router I have partially broken down right now in the garage It helps to think things through, first).