A quick note on tile. I knew I wanted white subway,  and a decorative boarder. I didn’t know I wanted two colors, that was added later. But I went down to a really cool store in Baltimore called Second Chance. This place likes to give second chances to people and things – they salvage things out of construction sites and they employ people that have hard pasts. It was similar to a ReStore, but the size of two warehouses.

Well, they get donations the same way that a Goodwill would because they are a non profit. When a commercial company has leftover tile, they have a few choices. They can store it, hoping to use it for a new job. They can return it, which usually will mean they will have to pay a restocking fee. Or, they can donate it somewhere and take the tax write off. So, there is a lot of tile at Second Chance. Because I was not super picky about what EXACT tile I wanted, I got over 2000 dollars worth of tile for 240 bucks. (I will say this if you are buying tile second hand – buy extra because it’s been handled a lot, and pieces will be chipped.)

I wanted 2×6 subway, but they had sooo much 4×8 I just went with it. I got matching white pencil tiles, which boarder the shelf and accent line. And matching baseboard tile. (below) The accent tile I bought full price from the Hell Depot, but I only needed three sheets of it. Then the upper part is actually a floor tile. The original plan was to use 24×12 tiles on the upper half, which cost 10 bucks a tile at Hell Depot. These tiles are the EXACT SAME TILE (as in same company, same color) but in a 12×12, and I paid 15 dollars for a box of 14. I’m pretty tickled by the whole thing.

Days. I am not lying. It took DAYS. And thank god for Ian and his newly acquired tile cutting skills.

with grout.