I got the tile at Super Home Surplus in Madison.  They carry a lot of tile ‘seconds’ or closeouts that would otherwise cost three times as much or more.  This particular porcelain tile is called Matrix-Element.  You can actually buy it on Amazon for around $3.62 per square foot (incl. shipping).  I got it for around $1 a square foot.  The only catch is that you have to sort out a few tiles with ‘imperfections’ or chips of some kind.  Most of the tiles were not defective so this was a fabulous value.

They had both 12″ x 12″ tiles available as well as 12″ x 24″.  Standing in the store I had the idea of mixing the two together in some sort of pattern that was made to look random.  (It wasn’t totally random because that might look too hap-hazard and, well, random..    )  I guess that’s what happens when a tile guy gets to pick out the tile and design the layout.  Only the budget kept me from going totally crazy.

I definitely have to include a before and after photo of this bathroom.  It was the original bathroom in the home.  It was completely gutted and built new except for the bathtub.  Those old cast iron tubs can last a long time if you take care of them.  The old bathroom had a closet in the corner that wouldn’t let you open the door very far.  You had to squeeze by the sink to get into the room.  The closet had to go as well as that hideous wallpaper. 

One of the few things I found in the attic that was worth keeping was the new mirror frame.  I stripped all the paint off and had it painted with a new mirror.  It’s probably much older than the home, but it really gives the bathroom some character that only comes with age.

The Ardee renovation was going to include a complete overhaul of the kitchen.  The original kitchen was cramped and filled with too many large appliances and not enough cabinets.  If you entered the home through the back door you’d have to snake around through the kitchen to get to the dining room and the rest of the home.

My plan was to nearly completely remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room.  Leaving a short section that would enclose the fridge on the left side.  This wall was load-bearing so I had to build some temporary supports for the ceiling joists above and replace the wall with a large header that would carry the load.  This is usually not terribly complicated, but the change is noticable as soon as you can begin to see how the room will feel once it’s opened up. 

In addition to removing the wall at this home, I decided to move the back door to where the window was in order to have more room for cabinets and appliances and improve the flow of the house.  The exterior of this wall is the backporch which was getting renovated as well, so it was fairly convenient to make these changes at this point in the process.

The finished kitchen turned out great.  I had room for plenty of cabinets and the kitchen is now open to the dining room and on into the living room.  If you include the screened-in back porch, I’d say that this would be a great home for entertaining.  I can just imagine people mingling throughout the entire downstairs living space.

The existing smaller bathroom was just around the corner and had a large tub, so I thought that the master bathroom could mainly feature a spacious tile shower.  This entire bathroom was built from scratch.  I built a small wall that would make the shower nearly 34″ x 60″.   I wanted it to feel roomy and luxurious with tile all the way up the walls and throughout the room. 

This tile is 18″ x 18″ square porcelain tile called Matrix Absolute Zero.  It’s similar to the guest bathroom, but has a darker color to it.  The shower floor is made up of smaller 1″ tiles.  You typically use smaller tiles on shower floors because they are able to conform to the slope better than larger tiles would. 

Underneath the tile in the shower is the Kerdi waterproofing system from Schluter (photo left).  I’m always talking about this stuff because it’s a great product.  It’s a waterproof and vapor-proof membrane that is installed over the walls and floor using thinset mortar.  It mechanically bonds to the special Kerdi shower drain and all the joints are overlapped by 2″ or more. 

One of the first fixtures I bought for the house was the master bathroom vanity.  I liked it’s unique look and the cultured marble top that really does look like granite with an undermount sink. 

The mirror was made from a large picture frame that I found when we were cleaning out the house and those chrome sconce wall lights were a fantastic Ebay find.  They are a design from Robert Abbey that was sold through Crate and Barrell. 

The bathroom came together well and is one of the highlights of this fully renovated home in Inglewood.

This home is FOR SALE!  More details here.

You never really know what to expect under the wall coverings until you start demolition.  For example, sometimes poorly installed wall tiles come off in sheets, leaving a nearly undamaged wall beneath.  Not in this case. 

The old tile walls in this bathroom where around 1 1/2″ thick with a layer of mortar ‘floated’ over wire mesh sheets.  It was built to last.  I had nearly met my match to remove it, but I got it all out of there!  It’s quite amazing how much debris will come from demolishing a ‘simple’ tile wall like this.

Anyway, after the plumber installed the new tub, I was on to repairing the walls and installing Kerdi waterproofing membrane over 1/2″ cementboard around the tub.  This will ensure that all the water stays in the tub.  I installed the subway tile surround first and then moved on to the floor tile.

The floor was covered with 1/4″ Hardibacker cementboard and then a sheet mosaic of white 1″ hex tiles with a few black ones thrown in.  You have to be careful installing these.  Not only do you have to make sure you adhere to your layout lines to keep things square, but you have to double check those black ones and make sure they all land in the right place.  I later noticed a couple that were placed on the sheet incorrectly at the factory.  I had to pull up a couple and switch them out.  You can go dizzy staring at a floor like this!

The beadboard is a product that is actually a paneling that comes in 4′ x 8′ sheets.  If you installed it well, overlapping the joints correctly, and do a good job filling your nail holes and caulking the seams it can look really nice when it’s finished.  The cost is well below the price of using actual bead-boards, which have become harder to come by these days.  (What??  Use real wood??  )

Even with the challenges of working on an older home, this bathroom was a rewarding project to see come together.  Hopefully, the new renovation will also stand the test of time and be a beautiful addition to this home for the years to come.

It was awesome from beginning to end.

I was already using their Kerdi shower systems and trim profiles, but at this seminar I was introduced to their Ditra uncoupling membrane, which basically takes the place of the cementboard underlayment in a floor tile installation, as well as the Kerdi-board and their in-line drains.  Much of the two days was spent in class where the instructor started with the history of tile several thousand years ago and brought us to the present.  It was so interesting to learn how they did tile in all those old cathedrals and why it has held up so long.

In addition to talking about the history of tile and how we’ve been doing tile to this point, we got into very detailed discussions on the flaws with some of the recent systems and how the Schluter products solve these problems and result in a much better tile installation.  I didn’t need to be sold on their stuff, but it was so helpful to hear the detailed comparison between the different methods of doing tile.

In the afternoons we had some hands-on sessions beginning with some of the Schluter guys going through a detailed demonstration where they showed us the best and easiest ways to install their products.  By the way, the Schluter people at the workshop were just top-notch.  I had one-on-one conversations with nearly all of them and they were not only extremely knowledgeable and helpful, but most of them had a deep background in doing tile themselves with over 10 years experience before they began working with Schluter.

The photo above shows part of the demonstration on doing a Kerdi shower.  One guy was doing the installation while the instructor narrated what he was doing and why.  The “why” part is so critical to understand.  If you don’t understand why it’s important to install tile certain way, then an installer might want to skip steps and ad lib a little bit.  They told us that nearly all the shower failures in America are due to incorrect installation or “pilot error” as they called it.  Their system is not complicated, but the steps are very important.

Needless to say, I was blown away by the entire experience and can’t wait to get started on my next Kerdi tile shower.

Off and on for the past year I’ve been working on whole-house renovation project in Inglewood.  It has been a remarkable transformation that makes it hard to believe it’s the same house I started with!  I’ll cover some of the different aspects of this project in future articles, but I wanted to get some of the photos posted and show it off a little.

So you can appreciate how far we’ve come, check out the before picture (left).  It is so fun to see an older neglected home brought back to life again.  In addition to managing the renovations, I mainly handled the framing and finishing work like tile and coordinated all the other contractors to handle electrical, plumbing, HVAC, drywall and painting.  For the most part, it’s a new house.

 THE DETAILS

1241 Ardee Ave, Nashville, TN  37216  /  1501 square feet  /  3 bedrooms  /  2 bath  /  Price $149,900  /  Virtual Tour

 For showings and more listing info call:  Micah Phillips, Benchmark Realty, 615-513-7560, www.MicahPhillips.com

The kitchen saw some drastic changes as I moved the back door and removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room to open things up and help the flow of the house.  The home now has a very open feel to it and would be great for entertaining friends and family.

The living room (above) spans the entire front of the home.  It’s a large room with lots of possibilities for different reading nooks or entertainment corners.  It also has a huge closet on one end to organize your stuff.  I can’t take any credit for the staging here.  For that I had some help from Elizabeth Chauncey (her website) who did a great job staging the living room for us.  It makes you want to crawl into a chair and read a book. 

 The dining room is the center of the main floor, between the kitchen and living room.  To the right in the photo (left) is the stairs heading upstairs where there are two more bedrooms.  Part of the renovation was converting a couple rooms downstairs into a master suite, which meant adding a bathroom.

The master bathroom features a very large tile shower that I installed using the Kerdi waterproofing system.  The large 18″ x 18″ tiles go to the ceiling and turned out great.

The rest of the master bathroom came together thanks to a couple great finds.  I started with a beautiful vanity that has a cultured marble top that is often mistaken for granite.  It’s great.  The frame for the mirror was actually a large picture frame that I found in the attic when I was cleaning out the house.  I had it set with a mirror and painted it to match the vanity. 

I found the vanity lights on Ebay after much searching.  They are actually a design by Robert Abbey that was sold by Crate & Barrel.  They are perfect for what I was imagining for this space. 

The guest bathroom was the original bathroom for the house.  The only thing still remaining is the tub which is a large cast iron tub that will be great for a good soak.  I had a little fun with tile in this room, mixing 12″ x 12″ squares with 12″ x 24″ rectangles.  I guess that’s what happens when a tile guy renovates a house.. 

The vanity is from American Standard, but the mirror was another special find.  It was hiding deep in the attic and actually seems to be older than the home.  It was so cool that I had to get a new mirror for it, strip off the old paint and refinish it.  It’s one of those pieces that really gives some character to a new space. 

One of my favorite parts of any home is the screened-in porch.  This home presented the prefect place to created a cozy screened-in living space just off the kitchen that I would surely use nearly year round if I lived here. 

There aren’t many people that appreciate a basement like I do.  Instead of it being an afterthought, I always try to make the basement as spectacular as the rest of the home.  In this case, it has all been cleaned with extra lighting installed as well as the black plastic moisture barrier that covers the dirt floor as well as keeping tabs on the moisture.  It’s a beautiful thing, not to mention all that additional storage if you need it.   

For showings and more listing info call:  Micah Phillips, Benchmark Realty, 615-513-7560, www.MicahPhillips.com

(Professional photography by Amber Beckham, www.AmberBeckham.com )

The difficulty in doing a custom banister like this is that every piece must be made.  These are not stock pieces for the most part:

• Oak handrail- made from a rough piece of oak and planed down to around 3 1/2″ by 1 1/2″.  I rounded the corners with my router and stained it a color called Jacobean.
• Poplar Newel Post- you can buy a stock poplar newel post, but has some fancier features that weren’t called for in this design.  I just wanted a basic poplar box that I could dress up myself.
• Oak Newel Post cap-  made from a piece of oak 1×8 board that I also used my router on to round the corners off
• Custom ballusters-  all made from basic spruce 2x4s.  Not glamorous, but it will all be painted and I needed something thick that I could rip down to size.  The horizontal pieces are 1 1/4″ and the vertical ballusters are 2 1/2″ with 3 1/2″ spaces in between

The ballusters were all assembled beforehand and installed as a unit.  The handrail and newel post were handled a little differently.  I started by figuring out where the newel post would end up.  I marked the spot and installed a large 4×4 block that was mounted on a post mount with a 10″ lag bolt down through the middle (above photos).  After this is in place, it is a very solid foundation to which I can attached the sides of my newel post.  There are various kinds of newel post installation kits out there, but this worked well in this situation. 

To attach the handrail, I used a pocket hole jig to drill three pocket holes on the underside of the rail.  This worked great and kept all the hardware hidden.  I really didn’t want to have any exposed hardware or have to putty any holes in my beautiful oak handrail.  I left one side of the newel post off until last so I could install screws from the inside to secure the other end of the banister to the post.

It will only look better once the post and all the ballusters are painted, but it already makes a statement that this isn’t just another run-of-the-mill (boring) banister.

This porch in west Nashville got a makeover this week. I started by installing some new beadboard panels on the porch ceiling over some plain white painted plywood. The beadboard is a welcoming touch to a front porch that helps it feel more like a finished space where you might want to hang out for a while. It’s a detail that was popular in many older homes around the turn of the 20th century and its appeal has not diminished.

The dormer was also covered with painted plywood. It was still solid, but the paint was starting to flake off and soon the plywood would start getting damaged from exposure to the elements. Great time to add some cedar shake shingles.

Cedar shakes come in large bundles that will cover around 25 square feet each. Walker Lumber, on Thompson Lane near 100 Oaks, is a great place to get hard-to-find items like cedar shingles and other exterior trim products.  They’ve always given me fabulous service and really know their stuff.  Cedar shakes come in different grades, depending on the quality, etc.  I like the higher grade shingles for a job like this.

I don’t get to do a lot of glass tile.  I suppose this is mainly because it is generally more expensive than other tiles.  This means that glass tile tends to end up in the luxurious or upscale category.  A fitting description for this 19th century home that has 14 foot ceilings in the kitchen!

This Victorian style home had been renovated a few years ago and this included the kitchen.  It had beautiful cabinetry with granite counters but no backsplash.  this was a detail that would come later…  and the time had come. 

Backsplashes like this are (normally) fairly simple to tile because 1) there’s not a lot of prepwork involved- lay tile over the drywall and 2) the countertops provide a solid level surface to start with.  After taking some measurements I was soon laying tile.

TIPS FOR USING GLASS TILE

If you are working with glass tile, here are some tips that might help.  First, use white thinset mortar and make sure you get good coverage.  The tiles usually have an opaque paper backing on them of some kind, but it’s still possible for color variations from the wall to come through the tile.  Second, I found that it worked a little better to cut these tiles face down.  This kept a straighter edge to the colored backing and helped it not to chip away and leave a jagged spot that could be seen through the tile.  Lastly, they do make special wet saw blades just forcutting glass tiles.  I was actually using a Pearl porcelain blade that seemed to work fairly well.

For the most part, laying glass tiles isn’t that different from other tile if you follow the above considerations.  These specific tiles were from Daltile’s Glass Reflections series and were a color called Cream Soda.  (Product GR18)  The retail price on this is over $40 per square foot.  (YIKES!!)  However, you can find it online for closer to $15 a square foot.  There is no question that this is a high quality product.

It was a honor to make my mark on such a fantastic home.  Glass tiles are definitely one of my favorite choices for an outstanding backsplash.

• Return phone calls
• Show up to appointments on time
• Call if you’re running late
• Get projects done when agreed upon for the price agreed upon
• Be honest

Pretty amazing, huh?  The above items are what I’d call the bare-bones basics of running a business.  It has nothing to do with the quality of my work, but for some reason it’s unusual for a contractor to actually act like a professional!! 

An article from the E-Myth blog is what got me thinking about this.  E-Myth is Michael Gerber’s company that is all about helping small businesses.  ( I highly recommend his books, especially E-Myth Mastery)  Check him out if you run a business of any kind and it will rock your world.