Saturday, July 13, 2019

The Cost Of Tile

In 2006, my daughter and I walked into the garage and water was running down the side and out to the street. 
At first I thought it was a hot water tank leak or that the freezer had shut off and was defrosting. 
Nope. 
We opened the door and water was shooting out of the bathroom vanity. 
There was about an inch of water everywhere. 


The insurance company covered the damage. 
Our walls weren't totaled but the painted faux finish, the vanity, the carpets, baseboards were all covered. 
In total we got a check for $13,000. 
With the money we got new carpet upstairs, wood floors in the dining room and tile for our living, entry and powder room.


I wanted Saltillo but the coral tone did not look good in our house for some reason. 
So we went with a Tuscan faux stone look. 
I'll be honest, I never really loved it. It was practical because we had dogs, a cat and three teenagers. 
It was practical. 
I've loathed them for years.


I've dreaded the process of getting them removed.


Well they are removed. It took about three hours to remove all the tile. 




 It took another 11 hours to get the majority of the thin set removed.
They had to rent some sort of electric hammer. 
 There are some chunks that still need to be chipped up before we lay the new floors.
Wherever it was tiled twice there is some residue.
It was loud. Nerve grinding loud even with head phones or ear plugs. 
There was dust everywhere. 
It was horrible. 


Even though things were covered.


I've dusted the furniture repeatedly.


I've mopped the kitchen floor 8 times.


It was quite pricey to have these removed. It probably cost as much to remove them as it did to put them down. 
There was the cost of the tile, the emotional cost of laying it ourselves, the cost to maintain and clean the grout.
Finally, there was the cost to remove it.
I never want tile again! 


Dixie and I hunkered down in the garden room.
But, it's over.
It was horrible but it was worth it. 
We're collecting samples for the wood flooring.
We have the tile for the downstairs powder room again because it's practical.


We will have a very thin grout line.
The vanity, sink, counter, and faucet are gone.


The counter was quartz and yellowed so much in the last six years. It was not a good purchase at all.
You may be wondering why we are doing this when two weeks ago we were planning to move.
The house we really wanted fell through.


We're still looking at houses. I look at the listings for anything old or historic every day.
There are plenty of houses from the 70s, 80s, and 90s but nothing older than that.
In the meantime we decided to do these upgrades so that we have the floors we want for as long as we live here. Bill wanted the new bathroom tile to run under the vanity so the vanity had to come up. Since it was up, I thought it was going out and never coming back!
I completely forgot about Keep In Touch on Tuesday. The demo people finished the floor at 3:30 and I hit the ground running with the cleaning.
My brother is here so we put the living room back together. We are having a few days of junking and then the great flooring project will begin.
Katie 

8 comments :

  1. I've been MIA moving out of our house so just getting caught up. Exciting to see your makeover in progress. We are "between houses"...a nicer way to say homeless.

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  2. Katie,
    I can only imagine what a process this was and what a mess you had afterward....Excited to see what you will choose for your new flooring and how you will feel about it all when you are done..Thanks so much for taking us all along this journey with you...I am really enjoying it!
    Hugs,
    Debbie

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  3. I've heard how messy and loud removing tile can be. I don't think our dogs could take it

    Things are moving along and hopefully when things are finished you will be happy with the improvements you will forget about all the chaos.

    Cindy

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  4. RIck laid his tile and I helped -- and it nearly killed our knees and backs. It's there forever, I think. I have wood. Much better when you are standing for length of time. That tile is unforgiving! So hats off to the removal and replacement!

    My neighborhood is 60s, mostly ranches and when a house goes up for sale it's gone within three weeks. I hope when I'm ready to sell mine it's still that way!

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  5. Wow Katie, lots of hard work. So thankful you got the check to replace everything. Demo is a mess.
    You will love the new look. I do remember years ago, we had our tile removed. It was a a dusty mess, but we are so thankful for our new look. Hang in there. Blessings

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  6. So much work and mess, but yes, it's worth it in the end. I'm sorry your home purchase fell through. We tried for months to buy a home and every time we put in an offer there were at least two other people bidding at the same time and we refused to get into a bidding war. So, we decided after months of doing that to just take a break and rent a cute duplex (we rented an apartment for a year after selling our home and relocating). Not sure if we'll buy later or not. We're at a stage in life where it's kind of nice to have someone else take care of all the repairs. Best wishes for a joyful life wherever you live!

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  7. oh katy...what a mess! during our 57 years of marriage, we had water leaks but never this bad. i hope things come together and you enjoy your new floors.

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  8. YES!! your new wood floors will be worth it, AND gorgeous. I love the marble type tile for the downstairs bath. such a pretty choice. As far as Keep in Touch last week, I think we all knew you were pretty busy with the work. I'm hoping you're over the worst of it now and on your way to "beautiful".

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