Tiled Walkway

The floor under the wood stove needed to be tiled to protect the floor from the heat. In deciding where that hearth should end we decided to tile the entire walkway from front door to back door, which reaches over to the wood stove nook. This way there was no interruption in floor, and our walkway will be resilient to the sand and muck that will be drug across the threshold over the years.

We bought tile for the bathroom and walkway at the same time so that they could match. The tile in the bathroom is simply a 6-in. grid but we purchased 12-in. & 6-in. tiles for the walkway to turn into some sort of pattern. In order to decide on a pattern, Noah cut squares out of construction paper and moved them around into different arrangements until he came up with one that we both liked. This is what he came up with:

THE PATTERN

The extra time we spent laying out the pattern was definitely worth the beauty of the custom tile floor we now have. We probably spent an extra day in labor in order to lay out the pattern and determine the starting point, edges, etc. But considering the amount of time required to lay thinset, set tiles, and grout (in our case, 2 weeks for Mindy), it was definitely worth the extra time. Now we get to start dreaming up something for the master bathroom. Here is our finished floor. We are very happy with the results.



Oh, and for those wondering how Mindy managed to tile the floor with a broken ankle, here is the answer:

THE STOOL

This is the first thing that Noah made out of wood for me (Mindy) and it has been invaluable. It was needed as a stepping stool in our Indiana kitchen in order for Mindy to reach the upper shelves of the kitchen cabinets. It has been used and well-loved ever since. Mindy actually briefly considered giving it to a friend when we moved to Maine so that there would be one less thing to move, but upon consideration decided that she still needed to be able to reach high places and would need the stool in Maine too. Mindy is very grateful to have kept this substantial stool for it came in very handy as a sitting stool for tiling the floor. This way there was no pressure on the ankle as would be required in a kneeling position. And this method of tiling was actually much more comfortable physically than being on one's knees for hours on end. One of these days when the house work lessens, we will refinish the stool.

So what's next on the agenda? Wood floors!