It is hard to believe that we are in the final stages of getting our kitchen back in order. We still have a ton of work left to get the hardwood floors installed in the hallway, bathroom and two front rooms, but it is finally looking like our kitchen is nearly complete. With that said, I was very worried about this next stage of the project. I have installed floors before. I have helped with cabinetry in the past as a laborer. The one part of this entire job I had never attempted before was stone masonry. If I messed this up, everyone would see it immediately and it would be totally obvious that we had messed up.
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| The Vision - Can we Create it? |
We had purchased our Centurion Stone over a month ago and it has sat in the garage. I had passed it many times thinking about how in the world I was going to be able to successfully install it. I had read that I should lay out the pattern first before attempting to put it on the wall. I took a large cardboard box and laid it out on the garage floor. I measured and outlined the shape of the vent hood onto the cardboard using painters tape. I had cut the box to be the same size as the wall behind the cook top. I then spent a couple of hours fitting pieces of stone onto the cardboard to look as natural as possible. It is very difficult to get a natural looking layout and to keep it level when none of the pieces are uniform. I finally got something that looked like it was going to work. I was trying to ensure that I had very few pieces to cut as I felt they would not look good in the mosaic that I was creating.
The first step in the process of installing the stone is to do a scratch coat. A scratch coat is a thin layer of mortar that gets applied with a trowel to the wall. This coat enables the stone to adhere to the wall when the pieces of stone are buttered with mortar. I pulled out an 80 lb bag of mortar mix and placed it in a 5 gal bucket. I added the 4.5 quarts of water the instructions called for and then used a long beater I purchased at the big box store to begin mixing the mortar. I used my drill to turn the beater, but it was more than the drill could handle and with a puff of smoke the drill gave its life for the renovation. I loved that drill!
I used a drop cloth to cover the cook top and floor, and then used a roll of tape with plastic attached to cover the cabinet that is adjacent to the wall and to cover the range hood. Putting on the scratch coat is a messy job and I was glad that I covered everything. One piece of advice I can give you if you are ever going to do this is that you need to give the scratch coat plenty of time to dry. I didn't do that and my stone kept falling off. Oh, and a second piece of advice is that your mud needs to be just the right consistency. Too wet and the stone won't stay attached. Too dry and it won't adhere to the wall at all.
I started bringing in the stone and placing it in the same pattern on the drop cloth. I was able to get a couple of courses at a time onto the drop cloth. I would use my trowel to butter the backside of each piece of stone and then press it onto the wall. I would use the level to make sure that I was staying as level as you can be using random sized pieces. I was able to get about 6 courses installed when I noticed that some were coming loose. This was due to the fact that I hadn't given enough time for the scratch coat to dry and my mortar was way too dry. The bottom half of the scratch coat was not drying fast enough. I left that alone and moved to the area above the range hood. I would need to cut angled cuts on the stone to match the contour of the hood. I was able to do this because I had an angle finder in my toolbox. It is always good when you have the right tool for the job. I used a wet saw to make all of the cuts. What an awesome tool to have available. Thanks to our neighbor Dave for letting us use it! I finished the top on both sides, and then waited for the bottom to dry.
Cassandra came down, took a look at my progress, and made a face and tried to act as though it was OK, but I could tell something was wrong. She pointed out that The left side of the bottom courses of stone were sticking too far out. I hate it when she is right! After loosing my cool and acting like a big baby, I removed the stones, and she went back upstairs. Of course, she was right, but I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that! I went and sat on the couch hoping that the scratch coat would dry so I could finish the job that night. At 1 AM the scratch coat was still not dry so I went to bed. I kissed my "right" wife goodnight and went to sleep.
The next morning Cassandra and I had early appointments for a health screening. I was sure that my Cholesterol and blood pressure were going to be terrible, but I was surprised to find that both were in the normal range. Small miracle! We grabbed coffee at the store and headed back to the house. I was ready to get going and get this finished. I mixed up a half a bag of mortar and began the journey. It only took about an hour to finish up the bottom section. When I reached the bottom of the range hood, it was a great feeling to have a perfect margin between the top of the stacked stone and the bottom of the hood. It was level! I stepped back from my work and took a look. Wow! It looks awesome! It was exactly as I imagined it would be and had rendered in the drawing. I was very happy at this point that God had graciously helped make this project a success. 
It is nice to finally have the part of the vision I most worried about implemented. The rest should be smooth sailing...or at least I can hope!
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