The Wall: Continued...

With regards to our ongoing kitchen update project, we have spent the last week a) completing the removal of the ancient chunky tile adhesive from the wall (Dave), and b) researching how to proceed. The removal of the chunky adhesive presented us with a stumbling block... basically, that process left some of the drywall "brown" (meaning it removed a layer of paper) and in some areas the drywall was chipped a little more by the adhesive removal (done with a scraper, quite crudely).

We wondered, could we put glass or ceramic tile, using a tile adhesive, directly over the drywall that had lost some of its paper layer? Dave read that you might want to use a product called "Guardz" and then a latex paint primer before re-applying adhesive and tiles. We were also hoping we could use spackle to smooth out the drywall spots. But we weren't sure. We were desperately hopeful we would not have to completely redo the drywall... So we spent a lot of time online, and seeking out the advice of friends who know better. Ultimately, the question was what order to proceed, if our gut instinct was to:
 
1.   finish removing adhesive;
2.   patch dented areas with spackling and let dry;
3.   sand lightly;
4.   (apply primer or Guardz, or both?);
4a. sand again lightly;
5.   get ceramic or glass tiles and some type of adhesive and apply.

As usual, the web had a billion opinions... but the ultimate conclusion we came to, with the help of a few friends and then the "experts" at the Tile Outlet, was to follow our gut, mostly. We're not buying "Guardz" but otherwise, we're proceeding as outlined above.

So, today we picked out our tile!

(ooh!)

It, and our grout:

(color = "linen")

were selected to match our granite and eventual wall color:

("Ticonderoga Taupe")

We also picked up all of our other supplies:

 
And set to addressing the first go at smoothing out the wall:

The plan is to apply another layer (or two?) of spackle this week until we are confident the wall is fairly even, then to sand it to smooth, then prime, then apply the new tiles!

Slowly but surely...