"It's like your the dentist & I'm the assistant"

One of our goals this year is to buy land to build a dream house.  In order to do that, we need to finish a few projects in our townhouse.  In August of 2008, my DH purchased beautiful tile for our kitchen.  We didn't like the wood laminate flooring, so we pulled it up and the ugly white tiles were still underneath.  Today, almost 4 years later, the ugly white tile floor is going bye-bye.

We started our project by removing the tiles with some cool tool that we borrowed from DH's best friend.  Notice we didn't go out and buy a new, shiny tool - we borrowed!  Anyways, the tool had an attachment on it that was like a flat paddle, and I was next to DH, holding the wand of the shop vac, which allowed bits and pieces of tile and the powder to go right into the vacuum.  It reminded me of the dentist - you know, when you are getting your mouth worked on and the dentist has his drill and the assistant has that wand shoved in your mouth, sucking all the saliva out!

After a few hours, we got 80% of the tile removed & the floor looked like this:

Now it's time to get the thin set up.  This proved a bit more time consuming but the process was the same.  All we have left is to move the fridge, dishwasher and our counter/cabinet in the corner and we will be done with Phase One.  Hopefully, Phase Two - the laying of the tile - won't take another 4 years!