day 1 & 2

we finally started laying the tile in the front section of our house.  from this view i am standing in the family room.  we are putting tile in the entry way, all the way to the family room, the two rooms off the entry and there is a bathroom to the left.  this has been concrete for about 2 months now and i can't wait for it to be done! i am sure you are wondering why trent has a duct tape square, well you'll see a couple pictures down.

i had to capture this picture because this is the first piece of tile that was laid.

we designed a really cool design to go right as you walk in the front door.  it was pretty hard to cut and lay but it was so worth it!

half done! this is the view from the second story. the entry is open to the second floor.  the front door is behind trent.

the finished design in the entryway.  surprisingly enough it only took like 2 1/2 hours to lay.  we were pretty proud.  of course no picture would be complete without weenie!

DAY 2

i am helping as much as i can so i am sitting/laying tearing off the tape and scraping the thin set out from between the grout lines.  it's certainly not fun or easy but it's pretty much the only thing i can do to help.

 trent is figuring out where to  lay the first tile off the design in the entry so that we aren't left with like a 2 inch gap to fill at either end.

the half tile triangle looking piece is the first piece to be laid on the second day.  it took about an hour or so to get the configuration right and then we were off and running.

those yellow things help keep the travertine level, we didn't know if they would really work, but they did and were really helpful.  the thin set takes 24 hours to dry and so the tiles can move pretty easily.  so trent laid all the tiles and put the levelers in and then i would tape the tiles together.

 end of the second day.  poor trent was on his knees for like 8 hours straight.  it doesn't look like we got much done in 8 hours but it really takes a long time.  we are hoping to finish that room this week and then it's off to the room i'm standing in to take the picture.  maybe one day we will get this done.