Brock Franks
One of my greatest pleasures in life is spending weekends at beautiful Smith Mountain Lake. We don’t have tv or wifi there and we both love quite weekends where we can read books, take walks, and truly relax.
I haven’t had a lot of blog motivation lately, but I do have a project to share today, our new kitchen backsplash at the lake. We’ve been talking about installing a backsplash since the house was completed a little over two years ago and I’m thrilled that we can now check this project off of our list. We also had to buy longer screws for our outlets, painter’s tape, and a small board to support the tile behind the stove. Mama and I have fried chicken at the lake a few times and even though we tried not to be messy, the wall near the stove had a lot of grease spots.
I debated a bit on a grout color and ended up going with Mist, a light gray. Our paper towel holder is a DIY project that we made shortly after the house was complete. Mr. SP screwed a piece of wood to the wall to support the tile until the mortar dried.
Mr. SP kept his tile cutter on the kitchen counter where it would be handy for simple cuts.
We didn’t buy tile spacers at Lowe’s or Home Depot, instead we used pennies. The next day Mr. SP did the top row of tile and it was then time for us to go home for the weekend.
On the second weekend Mr. SP finished the tile (we had to buy some corner and trim pieces to complete the job) and the next day it was time to grout. At the end of weekend two the tile job was complete except for sealing and using grout caulk on the edges.
The last step was to seal the grout and to apply caulk on the edges and where the tile meets the granite.
