Almost Fabulous

I have achieved almost Fabulous. Kinda, ok, how about better and working on it

This was my fireplace/stove .  Yeah not much to look at, mantle too small and the whole thing just way too big.  I think the people who put this in were just too lazy to cut the backer board.  It's 4x8 and takes up way to much of my living room.

Plus they used thin tile so they broke easily and I'm gonna assume dropping wood on it did not help the state it got to. 

So I said to myself, "self how can this be fixed?"

Glass mosaic tile!

I looked around for quite a while trying to find something affordable.

I finally found this tile at cooltiles.com.  It was only 2.34 a square foot and shipping was extremely affordable.  I also got some dark grey/black for a border. 

I also decided to reduce the size and increase the mantle.

I love the before and after the grout :) 

See how shiny it is!!!  Shiiiiiiny

So I still need to cut the backer board and tile the border but this thing called Christmas is upon us sooo I have to put on hold until after. 

Leaving it in this state would not go well with the Grinch theme party that is coming up.

I dug out a few things and used other things to give the illusion of a mantle and completion. 

Do you like how I used a couple old tiles for the top of the stove?

Giant stockings help to hide future columns for chunky mantle.

I will post more but not for a while since I will be busy getting ready for all the festivities.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

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Floor accomplish!!!!

I am soooooooo thrilled with the floor!  Why you may ask?  Is it heated?...  No

  Is it travertine?....no

Hardwood?.....nope

So why are you excited about a floor?

Because it no longer looks like this

No look closer...... 

Scared ya didn't I?  I know, only a teen boy would go in there and not care.

I had found some black tile at the ReStore for 5dollars.  I think there were 40 in all, but they were 8x8.

So had to figure something else out.  I took a trip to Home Depot but they had no black tile.  So I wandered over to their clearance section (another one of my favorite words cle a ra nce, see it just rolls off the tongue).  They had these wonderful cheap tiles for around 5 dollars a box.  They were a close-out and had only a few but that was more than enough for my task.  YAY I could see it in my mind.  I would rent a tile cutter be done in a day and then be able to install a sink.   So did not work out that way.  I rented a tile cutter but it was too small and didn't want to pay triple for a bigger one.  I decided I would wait and go to Home Depot again and just pay to have the pieces cut, ( I only had 6).  Yeah, HD doesn't do that any more...sigh, I turned to leave totally bummed, only to see a tile cutter big enough, for 3 dollars more than what I paid to rent the one I never got to use.  I was suffering mixed emotions.  I was happy, disappointed, hostile, and satisfied, it truly is a wonder I didn't wink out of existence with all the contradictions.

So after a few broken tile (been 18 years since I last tiled) me and my son got the floor tiled.

So without further ado..........TADA!!!! 

I almost can walk in there without the willys.  I still have to wipe it down tomorrow but was too anxious to wait to post. 

Huge difference eh?

Now I have to install this manly sophisticated sink.

Also found at HD for only 49 dollars.  Do I sound like a commercial?  Sorry just love finding great deals. 

So hopefully I will have another post real soon!