Now this was a fairly simple project, I promise! It took a weekend to install the tile and we just grouted today. We first applied mastic with a notched trowel. Oh wait, let me go back a step...it took us about a month to decide on the pattern. Several dry runs later we applied the mastic. So back to installation - mastic with a trowel, then the tile. We chose tumbled travertine as the main tile and an accent tile with glass. The accent tile came in a strip that we cut down to the size of the travertine. Jason handled all the cuts with the wet saw so I can't speak to that part.
Once the tile had set we grouted using a sanded grout (haystack was the color). I can offer a piece of advice here...add the water TO the grout mix instead of the other way around. That way if you have too much water you won't have to run to Home Depot and purchase another box of grout mix :) My bad!
We'll wait 3 days then seal the grout and tile. This is a VERY important step. It will save you hours of scrubbing grout wondering why the color has turned into a nasty shade of brown. This holds true for the floor tile too. It's good to clean and re-seal the grout every year or so.
In case you forgot about that lovely fruit tile, this is what the kitchen looked like before.
