The Floor
I started laying the 20" tile at the same time the electrical was being finished. We replaced our outdated florescent lights with ceiling fans and our track lighting with 12V halogen lights. We hid the halogen lights behind the vegas for mood lighting. We installed under-cabinet lighting, all on dimmer switches, and put an electrical outlet in one of the cabinets for a TV as well as an electical outlet in the china cabinet drawer for charging the cell phone.

I started the floor a little late. I had about a week to remove the old tile and lay the new floor. My deadline was based on the cabinet installation date. We also needed to pick up Jessica and Jacob from school, so I really had to hurry. It took me about a day to remove the old tile, but I suffered nerve damage from excess use of a slam bar. I damaged my carpal tunnel nerves in my wrists and lost feeling in the tips of my fingers. I'm happy to report that after about 8 months, the nerves in my wrist have healed, and I now have feeling in my fingers again.

I needed to determine the tile pattern before laying the tile. We laid out 20 tiles in various patterns, took pictures from the entryway, and debated on which pattern to lay. Here are two of the patterns we liked.

Straight staggered brick lay pattern:
Staggered brick lay on a diagonal (the pattern I laid):
We really liked the last pattern. This was a big change from our old pattern but was difficult to lay. For example, to lay the corner I would need about 20 cuts of tile. I borrowed a wet saw from my friend and started laying tile. The tile was 20" and I layed the tile with a 1/8" grout spacing. The grout was chosen to match the dominant color in the tiles.

Notice the dark color of our stairs leading down from the entry way. The stairs are solid douglas fir and originally were stained dark walnut and finished with a urethane. Cel thought that the stairs dated the house and that we should refinish the stairs and restore the wood to the natural finish. The natural color matches the vegas in the kitchen. So while I layed tile, Celestine used a belt sander and orbit sander and completely stripped the stairs and the original stain. She used a polyacralate to finish the stairs. The polyacrylate does not change the natural color of the wood. Here is picture of Celestine sanding stairs:


The dust was horrible and was everywhere. But the finished product was worth it. Here is the stripped stairway:

And here is the finished product:
We also had to redo all of the custom molding. Celestine and I decided to make the molding ourselves. I used a miter saw and cut 1"x4"x8' boards. Celestine stained the boards with a puritan pine stain and put on a polyacrylate finish.

Here is a shot of the curved staircase; notice the custom molding:
Here is a close-up of the molding:
It was difficult to install the molding around the adobe walls. Here is a picture of the floor about three fourths done. I had to keep laying the floor through the night because of our cabinet installation deadline:

I had to cut the last tile carefully. The tile broke as I attempted to set the tile. I was heartbroken, partly because of lack of sleep and partly because I knew something was wrong with the floor. The last tile was near the curved stairway. I suppose the weight of the stairway was enough to cause the monolithic slab to crack, and the floor was uneven, right where I needed to lay the last tile. I cut another tile, added more mastic and tried to set the tile a second time. The tile broke again.

I wanted to cry and didn't know what to do. Celestine called one of my good friends (Charles Dawson) that I worked with in church. He was the 2nd councilor in the YM presidency (he is in the Stake YM presidency now) and I was his Varsity Scout Coach. He came over with a large level, had me remove about 5 tiles, and he started floating the floor. "Floating the floor" involves using stiff mastic to level out the imperfections in the floor. He told me to get some sleep and finish laying the floor in the morning. I really felt Charles sincere brotherly compassion for me and Cel.

The next morning, I started laying the floor and everything worked out, I even set the last tile! By the time I finished the floor, Charles came by again to check out the floor. As he was checking the floor, I tapped on one of the tiles in the middle of the floor and heard a distinct hollow sound. Charles said that the hollow sound meant that the tile needed more mastic. I was heartbroken as we went around the whole floor and found about seven hollow tiles. The Elder's quorum president and member of the stake young men's presidency heard of my dilema and came to my rescue. We busted-out all of the hollow tiles, and I laid new tiles. Here is a picture of me and Sam getting ready to lay new tiles to replace the hollow tiles that did not set properly:

Finally, the floor was finished. After waiting 24 hours, I gouted the tile. Here is a picture of the final floor.
The above picture was taken before the stairs were finished and the molding was installed. As I was laying tile, Celestine painted the kitchen walls. The color is called "baked-clay" and is intended to give the kitchen a Tuscany look.