Yes, my dog room is practically finished! Save for putting down quarter round (which I doubt I'll do) and painting a cabinet to add to the space, it's done! Yippee, yahoo! I have scraped knuckles and a scissors blister from cutting tiles, but my pride in the job far outweighs the irritation from those injuries.
This morning, I started by putting down primer on the floor. Just doing that made the room look so much better. No more gummy stripe of carpet pad glue residue, thank you very much.
I gave that awhile to dry, then eagerly whipped out my chalk line thingie! Ooooh, it has blue chalk! Then I snapped my very first chalk lines ever. Perhaps the intersection of the lines was not in the exact, precise center of the room. However, for me, it was close enough. I'm still anal, but even I have limits.
After the lines were snapped and the middle found, I put down my first four tiles. Oooooh!
Once those were down, the middle of the room went super fast. It took less than an hour to tile the floor. As luck would have it, I didn't have to trim tiles to fit on one side (so much for measuring the room properly!), so I only had to cut down tiles to fit around the edges on three walls. Not four. I don't think my poor scissor thumb could have taken any more!
The short attention span part of me wanted to wander off when it came time to start trimming tiles, but I decided to see how easy cutting one was. Then I'd take a break. But it wasn't that challenging and I was able to cut it with a sturdy pair of scissors. Had I needed razors and a straight edge . . . I'd probably be asleep on the couch about now. You know, having given up, had a snack and nap time. Thank you for making them easy to cut. Once I did a few, well, I had to keep on with it!
The regular walls were easy. Just slide the tile up under the baseboard, mark where it needed to be trimmed, then cut. The door wall is on an angle, which required some creative work. I've seen on HGTV how you can scribe a tile, but for the life of me I couldn't remember how to do that.
So instead, I pretended to do the visual folding part of the IQ test. You know those questions--here's the thing unfolded. Which of the options will it look like when folded. So picture me, sitting on the floor, tongue sticking out the corner of my mouth, humming, snipping happily away at vinyl floor tiles.
I must admit, I did a freaking incredible job!
Sorry. I almost dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back. Ha!
With the challenging cuts out of the way, it took no time at all to finish the rest of the room. I was soooo happy with how it turned out. There's a bit of a messy spot on the wall that backs to the garage, but you can't really tell unless I drag you over there to look at it. The icky spot is behind the crate.
As soon as the room was completely tiled, I wasted no time dragging my stuff back into the room. Yes. The grooming table is FINALLY out of the living room! Yahooooo!
I even hung up some new shelves and a watercolor I got in NYC. It's a bunch of dogs riding in cabs, going to Madison Square Garden for Westminster. FUN!
I keep going into the room to admire the work. I wasn't sure I'd make it to this point, especially considering how I felt when I discovered the carpet pad was glued down. But I did it!
Jack, however, is afraid of the new flooring. It took about 30 minutes before he gained enough courage to come into the room. He spent quite a bit of time lying in the doorway, unsure.
Quirky man. He did finally come in, but he's still not 100% convinced about the flooring. He's used to carpet or the laminate. I'm sure he'll be fine. Or require doggy therapy. I mean more doggy therapy.
I'm very excited now. The room looks fantastic and just needs a few finishing touches. Tomorrow, I plan on picking up some black paint to paint my cabinet. Then I can put all the dog cookies and stuff in it. The cabinet will go on the back wall beneath the giant painting. I also might get off my duff and paint the kitchen!
Now that I moved all the dog stuff out of the bathroom, I can actually get IN the bathroom. I need to clean in there, so it'll be back to normal. Progress, progress, progress!
I think I've earned some kick back and goof off time, but am excited about what I can accomplish tomorrow! This is great because normally when I take a week off and say I'm gonna do stuff, I wait until the Saturday before going back to work to START.
Who knows, before it's all said and done, maybe I'll actually get around to DUSTING. Well. Let's not push it.
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