Plan for today -- we desperately need to make tile decisions. So as soon as Kevin's awake, we're going to look at two last tile shops, Hispanic Designe (which I'm told has a ton of great murals as well as many different types of imported tile, not just Mexican -- I'm hoping to find something Moroccan-ish for either the master bath or the guest bath), and The Tile Shop , which just seems to have a great selection, based on their website. We want something fairly simple for the kids' bath floor, just a blue-white pattern, hex or squares or some such, but are having trouble finding something we like at Home Depot. We went out to Virginia Tile in the suburbs, which had some nice options, but the prettiest things were out of our budget, of course.
I find myself saying it over and over in my head, "Champagne taste on a beer budget." Sigh.
After our meeting with Pam yesterday, going over costs, I suppose I should be grateful that it's beer and not water. Probably. Do we really need a HVAC system?
(Says the girl who can't think when the temperature creeps over 80.)
I’m pretty sure Hispanic Designe is closed now. Is the address you have on 6100 north cicero? Yeah, make sure you call that number before you drive all the way over there.
Try this place instead?
http://www.yelp.com/biz/mosaicos-chicago-2
There’s a durability issue with tile also.
There’s floor tile and wall tile. For floor tile try to find a nice porcelain with a non slip finish that’s rectified… e.g.
Porcelain : very dense, the color goes all the way through. (Some glazed tile will wear off in heavy traffic areas)
Non-slip finish: finely etched or honed. Don’t want the kids and adults getting hurt.
Rectified: The tile has been squared off on all sides to ensure uniform grout joint size when laying out the floor. So called hand made tile while looking very crafty varies in thickness and size and requires some really wide joints to keep aligned
Wall Tile: Be sure the tile is solid and has a thick glaze. Some decorative tile is not suitable for the bathroom since it absorbs moisture, especially along the edges where there is no glaze and allows mold to grow.
Be sure there are suitable trim pieces for base, edges and corners. The field tiles may look great but one may be required to use another tile to get suitable trims.
Finally larger tile means fewer grout joints and will minimize mold problems.
And… pick a grout color to match the tile. While white grout implies sanitary, a tinted grout if sealed properly will enhance the tile. Ask to see the grout stick samples to match with the tile pieces.
Whew… so much geek talk about tile.