Fruits of our Labor

Kitchens are the #1 most used room in the house – well most people’s homes and we fit right into that category. We like to save money which means more meals at home. For me that meant more time spent staring at awful countertops, ugly fruit motifs and horrendous cabinets – ew. Not the most appetizing sight while preparing meals. I mean seriously…what were they thinking with the fruit tile backsplash?!

I think I lost my appetite again…

Once we finally saved up enough for granite countertops we wanted to make sure everything else was ready for them. First thing to go was the tile backsplash. On TV and in home improvement articles they make the removal of tile backsplash look SOOOOO easy. I thought I would have in done in a mere few hours. Here was how far I got after only ONE HOUR…and a sliced finger.

NOTE: I was taking the tiles off in tact one at a time – which later I realized was stupid since we were not going to keep the tile anyway. So I took the hammer to it.

The Details:

Tools required: Hammer, Chisel or strong putty knife, PATIENCE

I started at the end that was most accessible and placed the putty knife at the edge of the tile (right under that cabinet to the right of the stove) and began to hammer the handled end of the putty knife to wedge it under the tile enough to allow me to pry the tile away from the wall with the flat end of the hammer. This is the best way to do it if you want to keep the tile to re-use. In order to loosen the tile you may need to carefully chisel away the grout around the tile.

If you don’t want to re-use the tile then the quickest way to get the tile off is to simply take the hammer and go at it.

We made sure that the floors were protected from flying debris and if you can’t stand dust you should wear a mask. We should have worn protective eye wear but that was an afterthought – what can I say hindsight is 20/20 just like my eyesight. Another note of caution… tile is sharp so watch your fingers!

With the fruit gone how am I going to get my five-a-day?!