Skip to main content

Subway Tile Backsplash Tiling with Mr. MIke

If Mr. Mike is in town you know we have a house project we need some help with. I had planned on doing the tile backplash with Tyler, but we'd run out of time. 

I had called my dad a week ago to talk about something else. I had mentioned our progress in the kitchen. He then offered to come up soon to help us with our backsplash. The weekend that worked for him also happened to be the weekend the Fiala's were ready to move on.

Before we could work we had to eat some of Brooke's famous bagel sandwiches.

I figured the kitchen would be a mess so a hearty breakfast seemed like a good idea. 

The new IKEA counters were just waiting for a beautiful companion. 

Scott had also switched out all the cabinet and drawer handles.


Meadow kept busy by racing her Power Puff Girls in her roller skates.

We had hoped my dad could help put in new tiling in the upstairs bathroom, too.

That would have to wait.

I was working outside and I could hear Meadow singing, "I really really like to spell. S-P-E-L-L" I couldn't figure out where she was. Turns out she was climbing our arbor vitae.

My project was to restore our homes original porch lights. When I was taking it down my dad mentioned we should just replace them. I should have gotten a better before photo. The glass was all rusty and some panes had been replaced with painted frosted glass.

Mike started by creating a shelf of sorts to sit behind our slide in stove. 

I became more useful as we worked across the backsplash. Mike cut the tiles while Ibput them onto the wall.

While I was waiting for the new glass pieces for the lights to be cut, I painted the ceiling in the breakfast nook. 

Meadow was busy with her own construction job. 

Even Brooke lent a hand. 

The kitchen was looking so much better already. 

We were nearly complete when we ran out of tiles. We were something like ten short. On to Menards it was. 

We've been here way too much lately.

I nearly didn't go, but we finally took Mr. Mike to Tootie's.

We never had lunch so we were hungry.

Beer, burgers and a Wisconsin dive bar vibe: what more could you ask for? 

It even has a kids area and a claw machine for my dad.

Meadow requested ice cream. We can't say no.

The wiring for the porch lights needed to be updated. I had picked up new sockets at North End Hardware earlier.

I'll miss that place when we do sell our place.

To end the night we watched the Peanuts Movie. Thanks for all your help dad.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Our First Visit to the Steele County Fair and a Twins Game

This past year Theo's best friend moved to Owatonna. When we came down last May for his birthday party I saw a sign for the Steele County Fair and knew we had to come back for it. First stop is the lemonade stand.  Then we hit up the daredevil show. After going to the RV show last February, Theo gets excited to tour campers.  They're fun to look at it or rent, but sorry bud, we're sticking to tents for the most part. You know I love a fair that is connected to the historic village.  I don't know if this is a common thing, but a few of the county fairs around here have little history centers right on their fairgrounds.

Work Trip: Dallas Part Deux

  I was back in Dallas for a day or so to shoot another college campus. After the shoot I made my way back to Bishop Arts District for some tacos at Taqueria El Si Hay . Of course Scott get sent to the cities you don't want to visit in summer. Hey, I just go where they send me. I should've got some elotes on the side. It was only 98 and humid. Just your typical Dallas summer day. I ended up finding a shady park to eat. There’s a lot, and I mean a ton, of suburban sprawl in Dallas proper. But if you look hard enough there’s some rather large areas of pre-WWII development.

Minneapolis Old House Bike Rides Without the Kids

Brooke and I went on a little bike date again to see some more old houses. This time for one of the tours I was most excited for, Lowry Hill.  We started with a history of the Walker Art Museum.  This house was built for the architect Frank B. Long of the notable architects Long and Kees. That's quite the roof.  Long wouldn't recognize the view from his home. These houses are bit fancy for my taste, but I learned some Minneapolis history along the way. It seemed like on this tour we had to stop at every house on Mount Curve Avenue.  I always wonder what people do with McMansions, but why the heck would you want an actual mansion. Hopefully preserving the history.  Doubt it. Still looks the same.  Dreamy garden. See Brooke, we need more trees. Brooke's book even pointed out a few mid-century homes to my surprise. We kept on walking right up until sunset. Which meant a night bike ride. My favorite. The next day we took the new Hennepin Avenue protected bikewa...