For you Diana- a teaser. Here are some tips and tricks we learned (many of them the hard way).

1. Laying tile on a diagonal makes the room look more expansive, and as long as you get the angle right on the first tile, it’s pretty much autopilot from there on out.

2. Vinyl is more annoying to cut than you’d think- so prepare yourself for some pretty laborious work with a box cutter. But the hand cramps are so worth it in the end.

3. Anywhere that you can temporarily remove the quarter round/shoe molding to place the tile underneath (and then re-install it) will make your cuts more forgiving and result in a job that looks a heck of a lot more seamless.

4. If there’s any movement in your vinyl (like ours above) be sure to spin some of the tiles around to create a less obvious repeating pattern. You want it to look nice and irregular so that it looks as authentic as possible (read: less mass produced).

Happy tiling!

xoxo,
Sherry (& John)

Interesting you should mention the kitchen floor, my husband and I spent all weekend tearing up the rotted sub-sub floor in the kitchen of our old/new house/baby/toy/art project, had a bonfire to burn it all, re-laid the non-rotted part of the subfloor, and are preparing to lay the vinyl flooring this week! any tips would be greatly appreciated!

By the way, I just graduated from University of Richmond in May and moved with my hubby to Michigan where we bought an ollld American Foursquare. So it’s awesome to have found some Richmond youngsters doin’ their thang and mentioning the Richmond hotspots and haunts I know and love!

Thanks Stacy & Erika! Burger is quite the ladykiller in his harness so Penelope and Paisley better watch out! :)

And happy first birthday to Bo, Lauren! Hope you had fun celebrating his special day.

-John

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e169/hngkngfooy/bo.jpg

We’ve got you covered, Lindsey. Just keep your eyes peeled for that info coming soon.

Burger says “Thanks, Rt!” We got his new harness at Three Dog Bakery and it’s made by Cloak & Dawggie. I’ll warn you that it wasn’t the most inexpensive thing ($45) but we made the splurge because we’ve hunting for a harness for about a year and this is the first one we’ve found that fits comfortably around both his skinny neck and big barrel chest.

Also, the salesgirl was a fellow chihuahua owner and she hypnotized us with knowledge of how small dogs should fit into these things. :) Glad you like it!

-John