All right stop.
Collaborate and listen.
When I start getting discouraged or overwhelmed about how much we have to get down inside our house and out in the yard I just think about how far we've already come in less than a month.
How beautiful is this slate flooring? Don't you just want to whisper sweet nothings to it all day long?
We picked {this} slate tile from our local Home Depot. Basically our method of picking out tile was that we walked down the tile aisle and stopped at each display to see if we liked any of the tiles. Out of all the ceramic , porcelain, and natural stone tiles that we looked at nothing came close to the multi-colored slate. We like slate because it's a natural stone that is long lasting and is kind of timeless, it isn't something that will be dated in a few years. Another big plus is that it's slip resistant, an awesome bonus with little kiddos around. Also, it was the right price; at $1.59/sq. ft. it was about the same price or cheaper than most of the other tile.
If you're considering slate flooring yourself here are some things to consider. Like I said, it's a natural stone, it's going to be uneven sizes and widths, which means it's going to take a lot longer to lay nice and level. This was a tedious process and I wouldn't take it on myself (personally). My father, who is a general contractor, installed the tile for us. Another property of slate tile is it's rough texture. Since Home Depot will accept returns of unused tiles, we bought extra (10% extra is recommended for most tiling jobs to account for broken tiles and such, we bought almost 40% extra) so we could go through all of them and pick out the super rough ones that had sharp edges on the surface, and also make sure we had good variation of color. The rough texture also makes it hard to grout and clean the grout off the surface. Once slate is installed and sealed though (we sealed once before grouting, and we still have to seal one more time now that it's grouted), it's pretty low maintenance and will look awesome for years to come.
When all is said and done it's gorgeous, we love it, and we are very happy with our decision. Can't wait to show you once we get it cleaned up, sealed again, and the baseboards on!Labels: house
