Office Tile

Most of my house was built in 1975. It had a garage attached on one side. At some point in somewhat recent history, an addition was built, that included a long narrow room behind the garage and a huge master bedroom on the opposite side of the garage.

Ok, so whomever designed the master bedroom came up with an enormous room (and a tiny bathroom, which drives me crazy, but I digress) that is simply too big to be only a bedroom. When I toured the home before I bought it, the previous owner was using half of the room as his workout room, with barbells and weight bench and everything. I have been using it as an office.

When I bought the house, I inherited 29 leftover 18″x18″ tiles. They are beautiful and were used in the master bath. After living here for years, I finally decided what to do with them. There were just about enough tiles to do a small rectangle on one end of the gigantic master bedroom. This is where I have set up my “office.” I have a desk and a chair to go with the desk, but the rollers on the bottom of the chair were on carpet, which is a no go. I used a plastic mat to cover the carpet. It makes things better, but still annoying. Also, the back door to the house is off the side of the office. Tile would be much better to step onto when entering the house from outside. A lot easier to clean up, anyhow.

I came up with the idea to buy a few extra squares, and replace the carpet with office tile.

Around that same time I got the idea to replace the carpet also. So I bought the extra tiles and carpet at the local floor place, and they sent over Bo to place the tiles. He was awesome. I was told to expect “rough around the edges.” Bo was perfect, though. He’s one of those people who is direct, open, honest, and frank. He has been doing tile all his life and had some amazing stories to tell about some of his most incredible tile jobs for movie stars and rich big wigs. At one time it was all the rage to create remarkable tile art in swimming pools in Vegas, and when one rich pool owner saw their neighbor’s newly tiled pool, he demanded that the same tile guy do his own pool, and Bo would get called again and again. Those were the days.

We discussed all the potential problems of trying to use tile from two completely different batches, using old tile that had been sitting outside for 7 years, etc. etc. He told me to clean all the old tile and dry it out, then lay out the new tile and come up with a pattern I liked, and he would copy what I had done. I brought in the 18″x18″ tiles, a few at a time, and dried them on the hearth beside the fire. We made an appointment and he planned to be in and out in three days. And that’s exactly what happened.

On day three, Bo finished the grout by midday and took a long lunch break. He asked for permission to take his dog around on my property the first day, and the two made it a ritual each day, to go wander through the grass, and check out the creek and the pond. The weather remained beautiful.

In the second half of day three, he applied two coats of tile sealer. He said I could apply as many coats as I wanted, and left me the remaining materials and showed me how to do it. Then he explained that I needed to refrain from putting heavy furniture on the tile for another 48 hours. After he left, that evening I did one more coat of sealer. And the next morning, I put down a fourth coating. That ought to be enough.

The next day, I began putting my furniture back. In the course of tearing up the floor and taking a close look at everything, I realized I wanted new paint in there too. It would make sense to paint the room while the old carpet remained on the floor, in case I dripped – which I always do. So that will be my next home improvement post: paint. You will be so surprised with what I decided to do to the walls. There is a little clue in one of today’s images.