Tiles are set

I finally finished setting the tiles. It was not my favorite part of the project so far. First, I prepared the mortar by pouring the MegaBond liquid into a 5 gallon bucket, followed by the 50 lbs of mortar mix I needed. One problem, yep that is exactly 5 gallons. There was no way to stir without spilling, as I quickly proved. So I asked the wife to run down to the basement and get one of our storage tubs and I poured in the mixture. Disaster averted, we're replacing the carpet anyway.

Then it was time to start lifting the tiles and putting the mortar down. I started in the back corner of the kitchen and lifted a tile that I made three cuts on the fit around the pantry door frame. Do you know what that piece sounds like when it tips over??

It's a large porcelain crack, followed by a string of mumbled expletives. Yeah I was ticked. Fortunately I had one extra piece of tile sitting on the porch that I could quickly cut and replace the broken tile.

After that, it was just a lot of crawling around and trying to refit the tiles into the spaces I had originally laid out. My knees are killing me, but I'm glad the hard part is done. Tomorrow I'll fill in the grout and move all the appliances back into the kitchen Friday morning.