Parade of Homes Gold Winner

See detailed pictures below!

Parade of Homes Gold Winner

Here are a few pics of a shower and garden tub that I did earlier this year. This bathroom won the 2008 Gold Award for best design in the Wilmington Parade of Homes. 

Washington DC Shower Renovations Part 1

This is the master bathroom in a nice renovated brown stone in Capitol Hill. I used marbleized ceramic tile to create this dramatic, open shower. 

The soap dish was made out of the field tile with back beveled edges to allow them to butt up against each other nicely.  

This base was preformed and set in thinset mortar. This process is a bit pricier but a lot faster installation. The curb was built with the floor tile as apposed to the wall tile because the floor tile is thicker and sturdier. Again the edges are back beveled to allow the tile to butt up close to one another. 

In these last two images, you can see how I brought the bullnose to the floor and allowed the curb to just but up against the wall. I usually like the wall tile to fall on top of the floor tile to hide cuts, i.e. what you do with baseboards. But in this case, I thought it would look more solid and cleaner to allow the bullnose to go straight to the floor first instead of potentially having a weird cut to go around the curb.   

Washington DC Shower Renovations Part 2

This is the basement shower in the Capitol Hill brownstone from above. Not nearly as exciting, but clean and practical. Here I used 6x6 almond colored ceramic tile. The ceiling is the same tile, but laid out on a 45 degree angle to offset it from the walls.   

Here is where an air duct was lower than the ceiling. So I boxed it in and continued the pattern from the other walls and ceiling. 

This is the lower ceiling from below the air duct box.

Garden Tub/Shower Conversion Part 1

This one was tricky. This was originally a garden tub; not meant to be a full on shower. There used to be a big gap between the top of the tub and the walls. If you tried to use is as a shower, water would collect in this gap and you couldn't get it out. So eventually this was would get really nasty. My solution was to bring the walls to the tub. The back wall has 2 layers of Durock. So the tile is about 3/4 of an inch away from the back wall. It looks cool. You can't see it in the pictures too well, but it adds dimension. That extra Durock wasn't enough so I decided to lay the bottom row of tiles on the tub and lean them against the walls. This way, the water can run down the walls and onto the surface of the tub and eventually find it's way to the drain. 

On the front end of the shower, I butted the tile into the door trim.

On the back of the shower, I used bullnose to finnish the edge. I also used bullnose to cap off the edges of the leaning tiles. This was unorthodox but effective for what I was trying to achieve. 

The soap dishes were made out of the field tile and capped off with bullnose.

Garden Tub/Shower Conversion

Two more pics of the shower renovation from before. 

Below are a few pics of another bathroom I tiled the previous year. I never took pictures of it till now. Simple but nice.

Baltimore Shower/Bathroom Floor Renovation Part 1

This bathroom used to have small 4x4 white tile all over. I removed everything including the shower base. I started over from the sub-floor. I reattached the drain. Built the curb out of 2x4s. Repaired water damaged plywood. Installed the bladder and waterproofed the whole shower including the inside and outside of the curb. I waterproof after installing the floor mud in the shower floor. This way, no water can get past the floor mud. When your floor tile mold easily, it can be because the floor mud is saturated. Water gets between the bladder and floor mud and just sits there, never able to dry out. So, what I do is, install the bladder, then the Durock, then mud the floor. The next day, the mud will be dry and hard. Then I start from the top, taping the seams in the Durock and waterproofing everything from top to bottom. Enjoy the pics! 

Baltimore Shower/Bathroom Floor Renovation Part 2

Notice how I used the accent band tile to create the threshold and the top trim of the base tile along the walls. 

Kitchen Back Splash and Floor Combination

Here I installed a "subway" tile design for this kitchen back splash. I also inserted a dark blue 1" feature band to make it a little more dynamic. It goes well with the floor tile that I installed earlier. You can see more of those pics in the blog below. 

Here we have a "brick" or "staggered" pattern on the floor. The tile was laid first, then the island to the right was installed over the tile. I think this kitchen has a great color combination too. The darker floor tile created a grounded feel and the stark white back splash with its bold inlay is clean and sharp. Great carpentry too!!! 

Here's a better image of the island covering the tile.

The carpet just buts right up to the tile. Very simple, no thresholds. 

As opposed to the staggered pattern, I decided to go with the "straight" lay for this narrow bathroom. 

Porcelain Front Porch Stories

This is the front porch of the house that I installed the 6x6 white tile in the shower below. Here I used porcelain tile because of the varying temperature changes here in Wilmington, NC. Porcelain tile is fired at extreme temperatures, making it much stronger than ordinary ceramic tile, even harder than granite. The tiles also have a rough texture for traction. This design has a very clean, modern and simple look to it. Yet interesting enough to grab your attention from the street. Enjoy. 

For the perimeter, I tried to keep a 7 1/2" border. I used 16x16" tiles and cut them in half to save on money and resources. So the grey border pieces are approximately 7.5x16".    

Here I had to cut two pieces to wrap around the post. I used the 45 degree angle to make the cut cleaner and less noticeable. Of course the posts will be wrapped later with a finnish trim concealing the cuts even more. But regardless, the I thought this was the best way to deal with the situation.