a penny saved.. is a tile floor

i knew even before we bought our house that i wanted to put a penny tile floor in somewhere.  as in real pennies.  we had seen a floor like this at the standard grill in new york and thought it was really pretty and on a small scale wouldn't be hard to fabricate.

so i saved a bunch of pennies, made a template, bought some mesh backing for mosaic tiles, glue that could hold metal and started making sheets of tile.  

then we just installed them directly over the existing ceramic tile in the vestibule with regular thin set.   

and then grouted it with laticrete epoxy grout in chocolate truffle.  

it was really very easy and i love the way it came out.. most people that first see it don't realize that it's pennies.  i like the blend of the different shades of copper that was created from using old wheat pennies right up to bright 2010 pennies.  oh and in case you want to know... it took 3,889 pennies (it's about 3'-8" x 5'-8").  so $38.89 for app. 24 sf of tile is not bad at all.   

ok..here goes.. another attempt at this blogging thing

ok.. so obviously we still have more work to do on the house, but we also didn't stop doing work back in april.. i just couldn't find the time to write about it... so i figured maybe just do an update on where we are with things.. and then i'll try to blog maybe once a month or so.

some of what we've been working on hasn't been fun stuff.. mostly mechanical systems and landscaping (that part is fun)

• the boiler install was completed without any issue.. and seems to working just fine.
• we broke down and had central air installed.. all it took was one day in April that was over 90 degrees and we started shopping around for contractors.  seriously, i don't know why i would even entertain the idea of living without AC.. 
• there has been major landscaping going on around here of which I can take ZERO credit.. Glenn is like edward scissorhands chopping things down, moving plants around and planting new grass both in the back yard and front yard...  I will post some photos of his progress later.
• we re-tiled the front vestibule.. this is one that i'm pretty proud of and i'll do a separate post on soon.
• we put up some new house numbers, exterior wall sconces and purchased some really great porch furniture.. it's looking pretty good.
• we have completely cleared out the third floor of all the stuff that migrated up there after we moved and have begun to work on the space.  we had a few extra outlets installed and are now beginning to skim coat the walls.. more to come!
• we still HATE our kitchen!  although i have come up with numerous schemes for what i want to do with the space and hopefully we'll get the funds together soon so that i can actually put together a meal without having to balance things on my head while cooking.  the lack of counter space is ridiculous.. and it's hideous... and did i mention i HATE it?