Arrival

Just thought I’d pop in quick and let you know that “At Home for the Holidays” is now arriving in stores! 

I’ve been busy unpacking the fabric, cutting fat quarters, and putting together some kits.  We always seem to have a few people who can’t find it at their local shop or find the kit they want at an on-line shop.   If that is the case, you can click here to see our kits. 

I’ve put together a little collage of what I’ve been making with the fabric, though many of you who are regular readers have seen them already.

As is tradition at my blog, any time I have a new product come out, I always give away the first copy or fat quarter pack.  So, for anyone interested in having one of those fat quarter packs shown above, just leave me a comment to let me know you want to be entered into the drawing.  I’ll post the winner next week.

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Many of you had lots of questions about the kitchen tile in my last post. (BTW – the color of the tiles is actually lighter than how it looks in this picture)

I thought ceramic tile was supposed to last forever.  Not so in our kitchen.  The tile in our basement, that is installed over a concrete floor, is doing fine, but the tile that we had upstairs in our kitchen had just enough movement to cause problems.  We had several tiles that cracked and problems with our grout cracking.  We have patched in new tiles and grout on several occasions, but the tiles still seemed to crack and the new grout never matched the old grout.  Sounds like many of you have experienced similar problems.  This isn’t a problem associated with just 35-year-old houses (like ours)  –  I have a family member that has been having similar issues in a brand new house. 

I guess some houses just aren’t cut out for ceramic, so wee ended up taking out all the ceramic tile in our kitchen.  We used a hammer drill to take up all the old grout, mortar, and tiles.  A bit messy, but with the smaller size of our kitchen, it only took a few hours.  Then a new 1/4″ subfloor was installed in preparation for the new tile.  We used a staple gun with special staples  to secured the floor, rather than having to screw it down every 3″ like you have to do under ceramic. 

Next, we started laying out the new tile and cutting out the pieces.  I was totally surprised at how fast this step went.  The new tile cuts like butter!  We used a tile saw, but without water.  The tile is secured with glue, not the mortar typically used with ceramic tiles.  This glue dries really fast and we were able to walk on it quite quickly.  We ended up getting the entire floor laid and grouted in under 7 hours.  When we laid the ceramic, it took two days! 

 The grout is not supposed to stain or crack.  Let’s just say I’ll believe it when I see it!  For now, everything looks good, but time will tell.

The brand of tile we used is called:  Adura Luxury Floors by Mannington – Color:  Corsica

Grout:  Adura Luxury Grout  – Color:  Chamois

Cost:  About $1300 for materials, covering about 200 square feet (or about $900 more than we spent on the ceramic, so it’s not cheap)

Here’s a close up of the tile, so you can see the texture.

Has anyone else used this tile?  I’m interested in any feedback any of you might have on this.