Next Project: The Bathroom Floor

I've begun prepping for my next home improvement project! Out with the old, worn vinyl bathroom floor and in with a tile floor. Official installation starts this Saturday. Nothing like a little tile work to celebrate Halloween.

Originally I thought I would do 2x2 hex tile, which I LOVE. It's common in older homes from the 1920s and before and I had 1x1 with a flower design in my bathroom at my last apartment.

2x2 white hex tile and a picture of it installed from Subway Tile

But after much number crunching, I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money. I need 36 square feet. The cheapest I could find hex tile is $8 a square foot = $288 plus tax, so let's say $300. Which doesn't seem like much for a new floor. But I also have to buy all the supplies, rent a tile cutter and pay to have it installed because I'm boyfriendless and can't have my man do the job for me in exchange for sexual favors.

So I decided DalTile Octagon and Dot tile was a good alternative. You can buy it from Home Depot for about $2.50 a square foot. That's only $90 for a new floor! I'm going to use a light silver grout.


What You Need to Install a 36 Sqr Foot Tile Bathroom Floor:

• Someone who knows what they're doing - $20-25/hr. if you get a deal. Probably less if you get someone from the Home Depot parking lot.
• Tile - 36 square ft.
• Hardy Board - 3 sheets, about $10/ech (this is cement board that screws to your subfloor and is the sturdy base to support the tile)
• Thin Set - 1 tub, about $20 (this is the mortar you put on top of the hardy board and attach the tile to)
• Grout - 25 lbs bag, $10-15 (goes in between the tiles)
• Tile/Grout sealer - 1 bottle (seals the grout to prevent staining)
• Thin set rake - $3 for a cheap one (to apply the thin set and rake half circle patterns into it)
• 2" deck screws - $5/box (to attach hardy board to subfloor)
• Grout sponge - $2 (not sure what it's for yet)
• Bucket to mix the grout in
  
• Baseboard - you might not need it. I do b/c my vinyl floor runs about 2 inches up on to the wall instead of there being existing trim baseboard around the edge of the floor.
• Floor transition piece
• Shower grout - to seal it by the tub. $4/tube for cheap stuff.
  

My friend Max is doing the installation for me. We went to Home Depot this past Monday and picked up everything on the list above except the grout. I'm looking for a very specific, super light shade of gray that looks more silver to add a little contrast between the tiles (instead of using white). Here's an example of how someone used white tile with silver grout no their walls. Home Depot didn't have what I wanted. Lowe's carries a "pale gray", but they only had it in sanded grout and I think I want non-sanded (they could order that but it'll take two weeks to get here and we start the floor this weekend). So my last stop will be at Arizona Tile on Morena Blvd. I called and they have two light shades in non-sanded for me to check out. And it's actually only $9 for a bag of grout there which is cheaper than the big stores. And here I always assumed specialty shops would be more expensive.

I'm pretty stoked because I think materials and the tile saw should all come under $300, especially since I ended up borrowing some of the supplies from a friend, so I'm going to return a few things this weekend and get $20-30 back. Woo-hoo! Depending on how fast Max works (and how much help I can be), I'm hoping my labor will probably be around $300-350. But less is always better!

The How-To and Before & After portions of this post to follow next week.

And an even more important post next week: the Meet My New Kitties post! As soon as this floor is done, I'm going to the Humane Society and adopting Jackson and Boo, who I wrote a little about last week. I visited them yesterday after work and it was all I could do not to bring them home right then. Jackson crawled into my lap as soon as I sat down, started purring, then fell asleep. After a few minutes, Boo came out of her hiding spot after seeing I wasn't harming her buddy and she laid next to me so I could pet her too. And I finally heard her voice (I've gone to see them every weekend for a month; the workers there are joking they'll have to name a wing after me) and she made a cute little "merp" meow thing. Hopefully I'll get her to purr once she gets more used to me.

So I'm looking forward to having a nice floor in the bathroom, but mostly I'm looking forward to the reward of finally have pets!

I'm Nesting

I haven't decided for sure on the cats I want to adopt yet, but I’m still getting my home ready for them. This weekend I started nesting and buying stuff for when I get my cats (some of these are Hobo Kitty's old toys):

Kitty Cornicopia

Landscaping: Front Yard Plant List

Last week, I posted about my trees being removed and the first draft of the landscaping for my yard that my friend came up with (read post).

Here's the rendering of my yard again:

Over the weekend, Krista sent me my proposed plant list so I know what all that green, yellow, pink, and purple stuff is:

Bulb
Freesia
Daffodill

Herb
Rosmarinus officianalis 'Tuscan Blue'
Mexican Bush Sage

Perennial
Kangaroo Paws orange
Sunset Gold Breath of Heaven
Superior Lemon Yellow Day Lily
Pink European

Shrub
Japanese Boxwood Conical
Pineapple Guava- shrub NOT
Red and Yellow Lantana
India Hawthorn

Succulent
Salad Bowl or Dinner Plate

Tree
Frosty Pink Angel's Trumpet
White Crepe Myrtle Tree

Vine
Carolina Jessamine

And I sent her the measurements of my current, LAME porch, that she needs so her carpenter can work on making the one in the rendering above a reality.

My current porch/entry way. It used to have posts and a railing on the outer edge, but there was termite damage so when they tented my house, I just had them tear them out rather than replace it. That saved me about $175 and I knew at some point I'd be doing something to fix up this entryway. Or rather finding someone to come up with an idea to help me fix up this entry - thanks Krista!

Crazy Cat Lady

I'm destined to become a crazy cat lady. I'm on my way to spinsterhood and I love cats, so really, there's not much I can do about it. I accept my fate.

I get love from Sara's cats, Kitty and Tanner, whom I watch whenever she and Jason go on vacation (which is luckily a couple times a year). And I just spent almost two weeks taking care of Matt's girls, Sentry and Meekah, spending almost 3 hours a night with them; not so much because they needed the attention, but because I did. Now that I own my own home and I'm mostly settled in, it's time for me to be a kitty owner again!

I had the best cat ever in Hobo Kitty about 4 years ago; he was a neighborhood cat that stayed with me most the week. But it turned out he had owners (he was an outdoor cat for them) and they took him away when they moved. I miss that cat.

Hobo Kitty cuteness overload

So I've begun my quest for a new cat. Except I've been convinced I should get two so they can keep each other company while I'm not home. Looking for two cats is hard! It's literally been as much effort and consideration as looking for my first house.

With one cat, you just hang out with all the cats and see which one you like best. But a bonded pair of cats is harder to come by and then you have two personalities to deal with (I've been encountering a lot with one really shy one in the pair or they're cats over 8 years old). It would be easier if I wanted to get some 8 week old kittens from the same litter because there are tons of those around. But I'm looking for cats that are at least a year old.

I went in to this not wanting kittens. But then of course I went over to a foster cat lady's house two weeks ago to meet a 3 year old bonded pair of black cats, Miranda and Stu, and they shared their room with an adorable 6 month old kitten. So now I'm sort of thinking MAYBE and older kitten would be okay... mostly because they'll bond to me quicker than older cats.

But unless some amazing pair shows up on craigslist this week, I think I'm going to adopt Boo (gray with green-yellow eyes, although they call her blue) and Jackson (white and orange calico, although they call it red and white) from the Humane Society off Morena Blvd.

I saw them for the first time about a month ago, but they were stressed out because they had just been put in a new room with a lot of cats. So I went back a couple weeks later to see if they were settled in yet and they seemed pretty cool. Boo is a bit more timid and shy but I think it's because she hates being a room with 10 other cats. Jackson doesn't seem to mind and just mills about and likes to be pet.

I went back this weekend to visit them again, and now Boo was out and about in the room and looked more comfortable, although she'd swat at any cats other than Jackson who got too close to her. I spent a lot of time observing them both from the window and saw their personalities more. Boo will run up to the volunteers when they come in, I assume because she recognizes them, and Jackson was really friendly and cute with anyone. Especially boys. When I finally went in the room, Boo and I had a good petting session on the bench and Jackson crawled into my lap at the same time so I had then both. Jackson really likes to play too, so we played for a while. It's fun watching cats eyes dilate and get super big/black when they're stimulated.

I asked one of the volunteers if they were still pretty bonded to each other since they've been in since July and I was concerned they may have lost their bond since they've been sharing a room with so many cats. She said yes they're still very bonded. They sleep together in the chair and groom each other and will share a lap for pets. I guess they even tried separating them at one point (it's hard to adopt out a pair of cats) but Boo is really attached to Jackson and didn't do well, so they put them back together.

Stay tuned; if I decide to make the leap with this cute pair, it'll be next weekend. Here are some terrible profiles of Boo and Jackson on Petfinder.com; most other oganizations who post animals on this site include nice bios that actually tell you about the animal's personality and better pictures.