It’s been a crazy busy week. I must’ve been joking last week when I said I would have more time before Thanksgiving. Looks like another year to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade while I’m furiously running around the house trying to get everything done! 🙂

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately…

1. BJ installed the wall outlets for our ceiling speakers…

2. We bought the crown molding, sanded and painted it white…

3. And… we ripped up the carpet in the dining room…

4. And then the tiling began…

Needless to say, we’ve been VERY busy. All of these projects kept us up late this week burning the midnight oil. But they will be beautiful when they are finished! Oh and not too mention, I worked on the decorations for our Thanksgiving table last week. But more on that later.

Now that you’ve seen what we’ve been up to, let’s back up and explain how we got here. If you remember my post from two weeks ago, we started a crown molding project. We had to take a break from that project for a week because of busy schedules and work trips. But now we are back on. We worked on getting everything sanded and painted this past weekend. And then when BJ started cutting all the trim pieces, he realized the saw he borrowed from a friend was a hair too short. After a pause to get a new saw, he was back at it again.

Meanwhile, I was in the dining room furiously trying to get an odor out of our carpet (LONG story). I was using a Bissell steam vac and home remedies for odor removers, but nothing seemed to work. After tirelessly trying to get the smell out, we decided to pull the carpet up and find the source of the odor. One thing lead to another and soon our foyer looked like this:

Once we pulled the carpet back, we realized we were at a point of no return. We ripped the carpet, the trim and the carpet tacks up and were left with bare concrete floor. Next, we had to quickly decide of what would replace the carpet. Off to Home Depot we went. We browsed around the flooring section looking at all of our options from laminate flooring to tile. I’ve always wanted a dark tile floor so slate seemed like the perfect option (it was also the least expensive! WIN.). After sorting through box after box of broken tiles, we managed to come up with 30 boxes of unbroken tiles to take home and start our project.

Because we are working in the evenings to complete these projects, the tile floor will be a bit unfinished by the time our guests arrive for Thanksgiving. We made good progress though. The only thing that will be missing is the grout and the base board. We may replace the baseboard with a wider piece of trim for a different look.

Here’s our progress this week…

We started laying tile Sunday evening…

On Monday evening, we picked up where we left off Sunday night…

And Tuesday, BJ took the remaining tiles to Lowes to have them cut to fit the edge of the room. And then I finished laying the cut tiles while BJ put up crown molding…

So here’s where we stand. All of the tiles are down. Tonight, I am going to seal the tile and then tomorrow morning, we can start moving the furniture back in the dining room in time for Thanksgiving dinner. We will grout the tile after the holiday.

Once the dining room table is back in the dining room, I will take pictures of the centerpieces and try to get those posted tomorrow or the next day!

Safe travels everyone! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!