Check.

 Our kitchen floors are D-O-N-E!  Patrick laid them Saturday, it's now Tuesday, and I'm still surprised every time I see them.  I guess when you live with this:

for over three years, waking up to this:

is gonna be a shock to your system.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's see...I believe we left off here:

Early Saturday morning, I woke up my sweet husband and put him to work laying out our (commercial vinyl) tile.  This was especially important for our house, because "square" was apparently not a very prominent architectural style in 1945.  Either that, or the builders didn't feel like measuring while they were building our house.  Irregardless (love you, Michelle), we (and by we, I mean Patrick) needed to lay out the tile so that we could find the angle that looked the most square from the most perspectives.

We also went back and forth between splitting the cuts (meaning to have the grid centered on the floor and have cuts on all sides) and working from a corner (which is obviously what we chose to do).  Our reasons for choosing to work from a corner were three-fold.  First, it ended up looking the best.  Had we centered the grid on the floor, we would have been left with itty bitty cuts on either side.  This way, we have no cuts on the two most seen sides, and half-ish cuts on most other sides.  The second reason we chose to work from a corner was that it was easier.  Pat had to make exactly half as many cuts as he would have otherwise.  The third reason was to save our marriage.  Just kidding...after I surprised Patrick that morning with a triple grande double-blended white mocha frappuccino, he was putty in my hands.  I probably could have gotten him to lay the floors on a diagonal if I so pleased.  Which I didn't.  But he did vacuum the dog hair off the floor.  I wonder if a quad venti frap would get me a clean office...

 Once we were sure of the layout, Pat made marks and we popped some guide lines (you'll see them in red).  Then he double-checked that everything was perfectly square:

 At this point, Madison and I were expelled (due to extreme fumes from the adhesive).  We went to Nana's and PawPaw's (about half a minute down the road) and played all day.  Well, we played all day except while Madison took a nap and I ate sweet potato pie.  Three slices.  By myself. 

Once we were safely (obviously not safe from pie) out of the house, Pat opened up this bad boy:

 and started spreading.

 He did a three foot strip, then let it dry until it was tacky.  I wish we would have known a week and a half ago that these tiles were supposed to be laid on a tacky surface...all that demo was for nothing!  (wahm, wahm, waaahhhmmm)  It took about forty minutes to set up. 

 As he laid the tile, he would flatten the joints by pounding them with a rubber mallet.  This helped them get strongly adhered, and also eliminated almost all the ridges.  Seriously...the floor feels seamless.

 Notice I said "almost" all the ridges were eliminated.  After he finished the three foot section and felt comfortable with the process, he spread adhesive over the rest of the floor, waited for it to tack up, then laid it all at one time.  Once he was finished, a few problem areas kept popping up.  Pat put some weights on them, and we hoped for the best.  Actually, the weights are still there.  I guess it's time to move them and put our kitchen back together!

This was my original checklist for the kitchen:  You'll notice I've now crossed through some items and added new ones in red.
-Replace flooring
-Replace countertops/backsplash-
-Repaint the stovetop-
-Paint (or replace?) vent hood-
-Paint refrigerator -Buy new refrigerator
-Convince Patrick that our refrigerator needs to live where the stove is and we need a new stove/oven/vent hood for the island
-Install island
-Buy/make barstools
-Paint base of table
-Reupholster dining chairs
-Build window seat- After de-kennel training Bella, that is!
-Install recessed light over sink
-Find shallow drawer pulls
-Install quarter-round
-Finish painting trim (including column)
-Touch up paint
-Upgrade electrical switches and outlets to GFCI
-Find/DIY art for wall behind table
-Stencil or otherwise decorate the soffit.
-Overcome my claustrophobic tendencies and invite thirty people over for a human game of chess.  


Okay, that last one is never gonna happen.  But night before last, I was a knight and Pat was a bishop, and I totally kicked butt.  Boo-yah.

Have you been working on your house lately?  Or eating pie?  Or manipulating your spouse with highly addictive sugar and caffeine-laden beverages?
 
-Kelli