Pictures and Projects!

November 14, 2017

Pictures and Projects!

The Butlers, Bishops and Praters 2017

This week had been a productive one and it feels good! I'm trucking along on my masters and got an email reminding me of all the graduation times and requirements! So exciting! I just have a couple of assignments in one class and my final draft on my capstone and stick a fork in me, I'm done!

Della is big enough for her bumbo seat high chair now, so she sat in that to watch us prepare dinner! She's still a little thing, so I had to put a blanket on one side to keep her from tilting over...

Target trip with Nana!

On Wednesday Daniel and I had our "date night/shopping trip" and went to Sam's and Target to pick up a few things and eat dinner. My mom watched Della, and they ended up going to Target too! Who can resist Target... I mean everything is just so cute!

Daniel was off work on Friday for Veteran's Day so I took off as well so that we could work on our bathroom. We've had the tile placed in the bathroom for a couple of weeks and have been cutting the pieces slowly. When you've never cut tile before, it takes a minute to get the hang of using a tile saw and such. We found that the saw tended to knock off a chip at the end of the cut, and being the perfectionists that we are we had to find a way to avoid that... through trial and error we found that if we flipped the tile face down to cut it, the chip would be on the bottom and not be seen. We also had some holes to cut and a vent to work around, so we had several tiles that needed to be customized. Daniel bought a special drill bit that would cut a hole in tile and it was worth the $40! Also, I suggest if you lay tile yourself to invest in a tile saw. We got one on the cheap from Harbor Freight and bought a good blade to go on it from Home Depot. It's on the cheaper side, so the guide doesn't quite square up, but it gets the job done. For the amount of tile we are doing, it's just fine.

All laid out

Measuring for holes

Once we got all the tile cut and laid out, I figured I could just move a few tiles at a time, put down mortar and then tiles and move on to the next section... that didn't work after I got into it, so I stacked all the tiles in the hallway in a way that I knew where they went and started with a blank floor. It was much easier to maneuver that way, especially in such a small space. With this plan, I could start in the corner and work my way to the door putting down enough mortar for 2-3 tiles and then lining them up with the spacers. I feel like I had to work fast at this... the mortar would harden up pretty quickly. After laying down the tile I would tap it with a rubber mallet a few times to set it in place. We would wipe off any mortar that got on the tile as we went so it didn't dry on top of the tile. That was part of Daniel's job, LOL, he was the mortar police... cause I was getting it everywhere since I was trying to work quickly!

In order to make the layout look right, and work around the floor vent the easiest... we made that tile the cornerstone. Instead of cutting a rectangle out of the tile (because we didn't have the tools to do that), we cut it into 4 pieces and placed them around the hole. This worked out really well, and we were able to correctly space the other tiles around it.

before I realized I needed to take up all the tiles...

We mixed up about 1/3 of the mortar and had almost enough... we had to mix more to put down the last 4 tiles. There's definitely a technique to putting down the mortar, but the more you do it you kinda figure out the rhythm.This is why Daniel wanted me to lay it, being an art kid and all I have a knack for doing stuff like this, where Daniel will sometimes be a little anxious about it. I tend to have the attitude of "It'll be fine! Lets just do it!" Sometimes that works, sometimes not. But for me it usually somehow works out 😀.

After getting all the tiles down we had to wait 24 hours to let everything set. We started about 11:00 a.m. and finished at 7:15 p.m. Most of that time was cutting tile (and lunch). It took about 2 hours to actually lay the tile.

Since we had photos on Saturday, we did the grout on Sunday. I picked out a warm gray, which goes perfectly with the tile and turns out it matches the tub too!We mixed 1/4 of the bag of grout and that was the perfect amount. We are only working with about 30 square feet so there was no need to mix the whole bag. I started in the corner and worked my way out, using a foam trowel that came in a tile kit we got a Lowe's. I'd just plop it down and work it into the cracks at an angle until they were full and looked like I wanted. I didn't put grout against the walls, you need to leave a space for the tiles to expand due to weather, moisture etc. This process only took about an hour, then we let it sit for maybe 30 minutes and wiped it down with a sponge. This cleaned the excess grout off the top of the tile and smoothed out the grout lines nicely!

Now we just have to seal the grout and we'll be ready to put the vanity and toilet back in! I've now found out there is a sealer you can mix with the grout instead of water, so you don't have the extra step of sealing at the end... we'll remember that for the other bathroom!

All in all, this was really not that difficult. People tend to be scared to do tile themselves, but we had good instructions from a home how-to book and confidence that we could do it! We saved alot of money doing it ourselves and I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to do it. It looks pretty darn good too!

doing the grout

finished grout!

I've sucked Kellie into Snapchat...

On Friday night Kellie and Henry came into town! Since my parents were watching Della while we worked on the bathroom they got to hang out with her, then we came when we got done and ate dinner with them.

Saturday we did family photos! We have been taking yearly family photos since about 2005 and I love that we have kept it up! It's really great to be able to see how our family grows and changes each year, and these are also the images we use for our Christmas cards. I've told my parents, if four years and a photography degree did nothing else, it has saved us lots of money on family pics! 😂 I try to go somewhere new each year to take them, and this year we went to the cotton field by my house. Over the years I've gotten better at keeping sessions around an hour or so, and knowing when I've got what I need. I still tend to overshoot, but not nearly as bad as years past! Of course it's a gaggle with all of us, a baby and we usually include Bernie too, but we have a good time. And my family are great subjects, they do pretty much whatever I tell them to and also bring their own ideas for posing sometimes (we have a picture of all of us in a tree from a couple years ago... my mom turned around and said "Hey, lets all get in that tree!" now that image is a 20x30 in her living room...). I love how our images turned out this year! I've finally nailed down my "look" when editing photos and use that custom preset on everything. It makes editing so much faster and I just love the look.(there's more family pics at the end of the post 😊)

They're good sports...

After photos Kellie and Henry headed home and we went to Mama and Daddy's to watch the Alabama game. It's always so nice to relax at their house (even though that game wasn't relaxing... ha!) I was able to edit the pics and Daniel and Della watched the game. She loves watching football!

Sunday we honored our Veterans at church, so I took some photos of Daniel and his mom and dad to display. His dad was in the Army as well and his mom was in the Navy, then the Army. Daniel comes from a military family, all the Bishop males having served at one point. I'm so proud of him and his family's service, and both my grandfathers served as well. He does it because he loves it, not for recognition. It doesn't come without sacrifices, honestly being in the military means you'll most likely be busy at the most inconvenient times, like birthdays, anniversaries and other fun/important events. But, I appreciate the sacrifice and deal with the inconvenience, because he's a soldier through and through, and that's one of the many things I love about him.

Daniel, his Dad, and his mom

Curtis Butler (my dad's father) - Army

Leon Fincher (my mom's father) - Navy

After church I took Della's 4 month photos and then me and Mama went to my friend Jenni's baby shower! Jenni and I have been best friends since the 3rd grade and she's having a sweet boy in January and I'm so excited for her!

Della couldn't hang

so cute!

4 months old!

love this outfit and headband!

on the blanket I made her while pregnant

Like I said, this was a busy week! It was so much fun doing all the house stuff and pictures, and it feels good to get stuff done! Hopefully we can be just as productive this coming week!

Oh, and there are more photos below... 😊