Rich got me a new toy!
I’ve been having a blast trying it out. It’s a little hard getting used to not having a zoom, but it’s been fun so far.
I scored quite a few Pyrex pieces over the past week. Not only did I manage to get a few great deals, they somehow all ended up being patterns that I collect.
First up: Snowflake Garland mixing bowls #401 and #402 and a Pink Gooseberry Bake Serve and Store casserole #472. I kind of fell into collecting both of these patterns. My mom had a Snowflake Garland cinderella bowl that I grew up baking with and she has since passed it along to me. That bowl will never be leaving my collection, so I might as well add to it. As for the Gooseberry, my mother-in-law actually started that collection for me. Last year for my birthday she gave me about 12 Pyrex that she had collected over a few months. Talk about the best birthday gift ever.
My next find was a Turquoise Mixing Bowl #403. It’s a little beat up, but I’m hoping a little elbow grease can restore some of it’s glory.
My last find was probably my favorite find: a Terra Bake Serve and Store casserole #472 with the lid. Terra is one of my favorite patterns and I have been dying for a lidded casserole!
After living with the tiles for 5 months, I was ready to see them go. We picked up a handy tile scraper at Home Depot and got to work. The tiles came up pretty quickly once you got a section started.
We didn’t worry too much about the glue residue (the black stuff). While we could have purchased chemicals to remove all this, our research found that it wasn’t really necessary unless you were planning on adhering something directly to the subfloor. Since this is a floating floor, we just left it behind and rolled out the underlayment.
Our next step was to decide which way to lay the tiles. We laid out a few rows of tiles (not clicked together) to get a sense of how the flooring would look. We ended up choosing the direction that made the project way tougher. We ran the tiles parallel to the back wall, which meant we started under the heating system, which meant we didn’t have a flat surface to work against. We had to be extra careful with the first few rows to make sure the flooring didn’t slide and stayed straight. As you can see in the picture, the spacers didn’t help much since they were unable to lay flat against a wall.
Because the tiles are so large (almost 1′ x 2′ each) the flooring went down very quickly. Watch a few videos demonstrations online and you’ll have no trouble if you’re trying to do it yourself.
Our cuts were pretty straightforward until we got to the closet area. That’s when we started having to get way more precise and do some creative tile cutting. Not going to lie, I got a little nervous when Rich started cutting into some of the molding, but it all worked out fine.
Over one weekend, we were able to get all the flooring down in both bedrooms. We still have the hallway (and a billion transitions) to figure out. We weren’t able to get a lot done last weekend as we were digging out from the blizzard.
We’re also at a bit of a standstill due to some issues with the quarter round. We ordered the quarter round that was mean to coordinate with our flooring – it wasn’t the exact same, it was a wood tone. Well, we got white laminate quarter round. So I called Home Depot and had them send a replacement order, but we got the exact same thing. Now I’m waiting to hear from the resolution department since the product we’re receiving does not match what is shown on the website. We’re getting pretty frustrated since we could have had the two bedrooms completely finished and back to normal by now.
