I had a choice: click in place wood flooring or look like wood porcelain tile. Naturally I picked the tile. The hardest, longest flooring to put in and which I have the least experience in. Oh boy have I learned a lesson.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the flooring! I am just not as in love with the process of getting it done “by myself” (AKA boyfriend in lead, me in tow, scrambling around a makeshift home construction site).

Bad enough we removed carpet, we soon moved on to demoing tile. And the amount of dust is simply astonishing! From the tile and the dry mortar to the unsealed concrete, at least I have plenty of KN-95s from covid to cover me on this.

With the tile partially demo-ed we moved on to bring up all the tile, mortar, grout, tile cutters (electric and hand) and trowels, towels and buckets (never enough buckets!!). The beautiful screened porch is now home to all the tools. Quite a messy home…

Once settled we began the task of picking the tile pattern. It’s in rows of three staggered by halves/quarters. Once settled the tiles were measured and laid out. Unfortunately the walls aren’t straight and enough distance between tile lines and wall resulted in many recut tiles.

If the walls weren’t straight you can bet the floor wasn’t level. Plenty of odd dips made the mortar and tile leveling no small task.

We started in the living room and worked our way across the entry, down the hall, and into both bedrooms.

The hardest part to tile was the hallway. So many intricate cuts and recuts. Transition strips were considered and selected. Moving was difficult as well. Tile too far and you can’t get out. Lots of hopping about!

And once the tile is down and dried it’s grouting time. We made use of a car squeegee to mop the grout across the floor and after a little waiting cleaned up with sponges, scrapers, and mops.

The grout was a tad disappointing. I had wanted a grout darker, closer in color to the tile. This one has come out very light. It doesn’t look bad, just not what I expected.

After weeks of start -stop tiling we are one room and a kitchen away from finished!! At that point it’ll be time to seriously start furniture shopping and getting things out of boxes and into their proper place.

Can’t wait to share some finished spaces with you all next time!

With the majority of the demo done it was time for some pretty progress. I had spent weeks pouring over paint palettes considering how to style the condo. I love color! Bright, vibrant and lively colors. I really don’t shy from stronger colors. However I do want to be able to sell the condo without having to put too much work into it. I also want flexibility to change décor as the mood strikes me which can be hard when a color palette is set.

I have settled on the majority of the condo living spaces being a neutral tone. Either a beige, a white, or a light gray tone. The bedrooms and corresponding bathrooms I decided would each have a separate color theme. The guest room will be in green tones while the master bedroom will be in blue tones.

How did I finally decide on colors for each room? I took 5-6 color swatches and taped them to the wall with the least direct sunlight. I then closed all the blinds and selected colors I thought I liked in almost complete darkness. All the unselected swatches were removed from the wall and the preferred swatches were lined up again. The second round selection I opened up all the blinds and judged the colors in full light. From this selection I took the preferred swatches and held them in direct light. I did this a few times to be sure the colors I picked were really the ones.

Once the paint was purchased there was no going back. Each room had a feature wall which had the boldest color painted on. The remaining walls were painted in a lighter support color. The trim, doors, and ceiling were painted/kept a light, semi-glossy white color.

While the majority of the condo will be accented in silver colored accents (door knobs, handles, fixtures, curtain rods, etc) the guestroom green is complemented nicely with a gold/brass color. I intend to mix metals throughout the condo with the mixing metals as focal points, accents.

Honestly it seems trivial but it is absolutely impressive how much paint changes a space. After painting the condo seemed brighter, cleaner, and more inviting. It started to feel complete even though the work has only just begun!