Here in Houston, tile setters generally get about $3-4/SF, which is CHEAP! While that's nice for the builders and homeowners who are more concerned with price than quality, it keeps the trade largely filled with unskilled and illegal workers from Latin America, so finding dedicated, professional tilesetters down here is as rare as hen's teeth. Consequently, while there is a lot of tilework here, it's often shockingly poor. I went on a home tour this past weekend of $1-3 million homes (the tip-top of our market) and the tilework in 7 of the 8 homes positively angered me! To my way of thinking, laying $35-50/sf tile with $3/SF labor, resulting in lippage, miscuts, raw edges and uneven spacing is a crime!

I just found your blog while doing my initial research on pool builder (found it in your Yelp review). I loved reading about your experience and seeing the pics along the way! Thank you so much for the wonderful insight. I have to say that your pool installation has made me so excited to pull the trigger on our own, and now when I need a break at work, I go to your blog -- my new "Happy Place".

If you have plaster walls try using plaster of Paris. Don't laugh! This is from an old home repair book. Spackling compound is impossible to sand smooth. Sand and clean the area. Don't be timid about removing loose plaster or paint or gouging the wall. Spray with water to wet the plaster on the wall so patch will stick. Mix together plaster of Paris and water to consistency of sour cream or even a tad thicker. Set timer for 10 minutes. Use one of those small trowels? to spread plaster mixture over damaged areas. Smooth out but leave it a litttle thicker as you will be sanding it later. Sometimes even a sponge will work well to smooth this stuff. When timer goes off, make another batch. After working with this plaster, you'll get an idea of the consistency that works best. This stuff sets up quickly so that's why you want to set your timer, work quickly, throw away the current batch and make another. When dry, sand lightly to smooth. That's the beauty of this plaster. It sands easily. After sanding you MUST prime the area. Use an oil (alkyd) primer. Benjamin Moore or Zinsser are good. Then use whatever paint you want for the finish. When using an oil based primer, you can use a water based paint over it. The primer will also hide the water stains. Another way you can patch is to prep the wall and then prime it before using the plaster mix. I've used this stuff on patches done many years ago and they haven't opened up yet. The downside is the short working time of this plaster, but it works, sands very easily and it's cheap. I did a search on primers and learned that Zinsser also has a primer for peeling paint as well as others, so it might be worth checking out. The only reason I favor oil based primers is because we had a house of smokers, and one time I primed the ceiling with a water based primer and the nicotine stains bled through and I had to do it over with the alkyd primer to seal them out. Anyway, I'm sure you'll get all types of advice, but I was working on a budget, had large cracks in our plaster walls and happened upon this method in an old repair book from the library. It worked and the patches held up. The book also mentioned that this plaster has a tendency to expand slightly as it dries, so that may explain why it held up so well. Good luck. Aren't old houses fun?

The room looks so good with the changes you made! Love the doors on that wall. The chandelier looks REALLY good painted. I would lower it a bit more and consider keeping it, but if you do replace it, that one you posted with the wider arm sweep looks perfect! I like the idea of a trio of botanicals on that wall like Lynartist posted. It's going to be a very serene and lovely room to dine in. It's nice that you're enjoying it already!