Kitchen Tilework Commences, and Bernie Gives the Kitchen a Test Drive

Okay, so in this picture of the molding tile, you can see how nicely the polished marble backsplash tile complements the lighter areas of the CD Volcano granite countertop in the background.  All of the marble backsplash tile is this creamy off-white color.  The field tile is just a polished marble brick with slightly beveled edges, to be laid in a brick pattern except for the focal rectangle over the stove, where it will be a herringbone pattern framed by this crown molding type tile.  The herringbone pattern, as well as the beveled edges on the field tile that are apparently not fun to grout, are the reasons why the tile guy from Tile Collection is installing this backsplash tile instead of Bernie.  Also, I want this backsplash installation to be absolutely flawless or it will drive me crazy as long as we live in this house, and I also enjoy being happily married to a man who is still speaking to me.  So, Tile Collection installs the tile this time. 

The beveled bricks are cut to fit and laid out flat on the countertop in the herringbone pattern ahead of installation.  Our tile guy cuts each tile individually to size.

...and now the tile goes up on the wall.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with tile installation, those little plastic tab things are temporary spacers to maintain 1/8" distance between tiles while the thinset (goopy glue stuff) dries.  Without the spacers, the weight of the tiles would cause them to slide down the wall. 

Ta-da!  Done for today.  The thinset adhering the tiles to the wall will dry overnight, and the tile guy will come back tomorrow morning to fill those 1/8" gaps with grout.  My grout color is nearly identical to the marble tile, which will minimize the business of the backsplash tile so that it will no longer "fight" the pattern of the granite the way it does right now.  Also, something weird with my camera and the flash are making the countertop look yellowish and the backsplash light look white.  In real life, the marble echoes the creamy ivory color found throughout all of the granite slabs.

Here is my cutie, test-driving the "new" kitchen.  Bernie made cioppino for dinner and spread out across the entire island countertop.  He is really enjoying having a kitchen again instead of feeling like he's trying to cook dinner behind the counter at a Starbucks.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow after the tile has been grouted.  Hopefully I'll figure out how to adjust the settings on my camera to fix the color distortion so you can see what everything really looks like, but don't hold your breath -- I have a lot of work piled up on my desk and the last thing I need to be doing is reading the instruction manual for my camera.  Or, um, blogging about my tile...