First I want to say that I'm very late with this post but I wanted to give a post on this before I show some other things that we have done in this room. 

The laundry/mud room is the first room you walk in. It will be getting dirty with muddy feet from pets and hopefully kids some day. So we decided to go with tile in this room and a long farm looking rug. The rug has not come yet but the tile is complete!

This is a huge improvement from this! 

As you can see we moved a few things around in this room. The window and sliding glass door (on the right in this photo) has been removed. A door is now where the window was and a window is now where the door was. Don't ask but trust us it made way more sense. We moved plumbing and the gas line for the dryer. The water tank has been moved to utility room in a different part of the house. Oh and we moved the crawl space opening to the side of the room.

However, this post is about that floor. That yellow stained floor. So let's get to it! 

The first step was to add pieces of wood to make the floor as level as we could. It's an old house and you can tell when doing these projects.

We then added a leveling compound to make it more level. You just mix the powder with water and then pour it on the ground. It will go to the spots that it needs to be.

After it dries the floor should be pretty level. At least as level as its going to get. =)

The next step we took was to lay a thin layer of Thin-set Mortar and Hardiebacker backer board to the floor. After we did this step it was so much better. It looked like a room.

For some reason we didn't take any photos of Tony doing the tile but the next few steps included laying another layer of Mortar and the tiles. After setting for a few days he added the sanded grout.

The final step is to seal the floor with a grout and tile sealer.

You have no idea how happy we were to finish the floor in this room. It was huge improvement.   

Before...

And After!

I'm so happy! My world might be complete now. If you follow me on Twitter I told you all about it.  But Instagram is on Android now. **Doing Happy Dance**

So now you have one more way to stay in touch with me. ;) 

Follow me here - http://followgram.me/kristenfaiola

Oh and to make things even better Flickr has an actual app also! No more silly 3rd party app!

Here is my 29@29

1. Organize my days better – Schedule! Still trying to complete this. Not sure I will ever master this but I'm not giving up yet! 

2. Swim in the ocean again. Tony and I went swimming in the Ocean in Maui. Lots of swimming! 

6. Love going to new states, so let’s add more to the list - We added Hawaii to our states so far this year and that's a pretty big one so we might have to check this one off for the year. However, I think we have a few more scheduled.   

9. Finish Lower floor of house. At least all the big jobs. - We are working pretty hard at this. Especially now that we are having a party here. OMG! 

10. Keep a journal for a full year - I started something new. Writing one sentence a day which is working pretty well. The best time for me to write is in the morning and I never want to write... lol! However this one sentence journal is working out. Love it so far. It's perfect amount of words. In fact a few days it was tricky fitting everything in one sentence. 

13. Start business and make sales - I did start a design business and I have made a few sales! YAY. I have a few prints online but I also do graphics, business cards, and other items for people offline. It brings in a small amount but that's pretty good because I have done no advertising yet. Soon! 

15. Make out under a waterfall (maybe Hawaii?) - Done! Yep we did this. Well not make out lol but kiss! It was really cold water. (The water was really cold that is why we are acting so weird and I had a shirt on - Promise!)

18. Make 60 new meals in a year - We are on 13 of 60 and already in the 2nd quarter I better get going! 

26. No impulse buying - Doing great on this! I have had an Android Tablet sitting in a shopping cart for 3 months now!

27. Make more videos – Love watching - Yes we took so many videos in Maui. Like the one above! Maybe will try and share some if I can ever find the time to edit! 

Whoa! I'm kicking out these new meals.

​Tony and I made a London Broil. It was super easy. I scored the London Broil by cutting lines diagonally across the steak and then the opposite way. I then seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, small amount of soy, and ketchup. Rubbed it with my fingers making sure to get it in all the cuts. Repeated process on the opposite side and then wrapped it in foil. I let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. It was cooked on broil in my oven for 10 minutes on one side and 5 on the other side. And it was delicious!

Number 18 on my 29 at 29 list is “Make 60 new meals in a year”. This is 13 of 60 for the year!

I have some new prints in the shop. Here are a few of my favorites. 

Love is the Flower of Life: This is a 5x7 photo that Tony and I took in Maui. It has the most fitting quote. I love the bright colors of this print!

Today is the oldest you've ever been, and the youngest you'll ever be: This is a 11x14 print. I love this quote! Tony said this to me one day and I knew it would be a neat print.