Today is the day. Today is the day that I jump in and start the backsplash. Today is the day I stop watching 8000 videos and reading tutorials and just go for it.

Today, I am nervous. I have never taken on a project like this one all by myself, but I am going to give it a shot. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and successes.

Let me back up one step, prior to gathering supplies, I took a class to determine first hand if I could even do this.

I decided that I could.

Then I made about five trips to The Tile Shop to find the exact tile I envisioned. And just when I thought I had found “the one”, I found a different one.

This is going to be in our kitchen for a very long time, so I wanted to love it, not just like the tiles, but love them. This is my definition of tile love.

Next I had to do some math.

My backsplash area is approximately 220 inches wide x 14 inches tall.

220 inches wide x 14 inches tall = 3080 square inches.

One foot equals 12 inches. One square foot: 12 inches wide x 12 inches tall = 144 square inches.

I needed to figure out how many square feet of tiles I needed:

3080 square inches/ 144 square inches = 21.39 square feet.

If each tile sheet is 1 square foot or 12×12 square inches and each box contains 10 sheets,

then the answer to “How many tile sheets do I need for the backsplash?” would be 21.39. Rounding that number to 22 means that I will need two full boxes of tile and a third box for fill in tiles and breakage.

Did I lose you? Call me if you need help.

Side note: I tutored Algebra for years and also volunteered to teach an advanced math class at our local elementary school.

I love math.

Moving on. The next step was to gather all of my supplies. I bought:

• 3 boxes of Gobi Brick Tile
• Pro Grout Natural Sanded
• Flexible Admixture
• Pro Bond Non-Sag
• Enhance and Seal
• Trowels
• Wet  Saw

And now…I work.

Stay tuned for a progress report on Monday.

Wendy