For our interior designer and commercial customers who often work on large projects we wanted to let you know that we offer pallet pricing on our Cottage Lane Subway tiles. This program also applies to homeowners working on what might be several residential bathrooms and / or a kitchen project that requires a large amount of subway tile to complete the project.

In this case, send us an email to sales-at-anchorbaytile.com and give us some project detail along with the quantity of tile desired. We will contact you with a quote and a timeframe when you can expect to receive delivery. Our Cottage Lane subway tiles are always in stock so you won’t have to wait long to receive your order.

We also stock a full line of trim tiles to go with our Cottage Lane field tiles as well as a nice selection of liners and border tiles. Remember, with any Beveled tiles you will want to use a quarter round trim tile as your edge piece while any of the standard or “flat” tiles as we call them around here are fine when used with either a Bullnose or a Quarter Round trim piece.

If you have any questions at all about ordering tiles in larger quantities feel free to give us a call or send us a quick email and we will reply as soon as possible to your inquiry.

As always, thank you to all of our customers for their continued and repeated support.

Sit back and relax when you order more than $299 worth of material with us since all orders over $299 ship for free. When you place an order with us and the total is $300 or more your order total includes the shipping cost and you pay no sales tax. Residents of our home state of Arizona also enjoy our FREE Shipping offer however, we must charge Arizona customers sales tax on their orders.

In addition, we realize that tile is heavy and when ordering from us there is no need to lift any heavy tile boxes off of a delivery truck when your order arrives. On large orders usually over 35 – 40 sf or more we typically will ship the order via LTL Freight rather than UPS Ground who is our preferred carrier on orders under about the 30 – 35 sf level.

On larger orders we use UPS Freight as our LTL freight common carrier and we always order a liftgate for our customers so you don’t need to worry about lifting any heavy tile boxes off of a delivery truck. When you place your larger tile order with us liftgate service means that the driver will lower your pallet of tile to the ground and roll the pallet using his pallet jack in to your garage or any other safe location in front of the home so you don’t need to fuss with heavy boxes upon the arrival of your order.

Larger tile orders placed with us are worry free because your tile is packed securely on a pallet so the heavy tiles travel well to the point where we rarely have any breakage issues on larger orders.

If you have any questions at all about the ordering or shipping process with AnchorBayTile give us a call anytime at 1 888 260-7371 so we can answer any questions that you may have.

We talk all the time about subway tiles and the different types, colors, and sizes but do any of us know the origins of subway tiles and how these tiles came to be? We decided to brush up on our product history and we were able to find out some interesting facts about the early history of subway tiles.

While there is no documented evidence to confirm the facts, the origins of the term Subway Tile appears to originate from the tiles widespread use in the New York Subway system which opened in late 1904. The early stations were designed by the architectural firm known as Heins & LaFarge while later work has been credited to chief architect Squire J. Vickers who took over from the architectural firm in approximately 1908.

Many Americans knew of this “rectangular shaped tile” that was used widely in the Subway system in New York City. So as a result, when referring to this tile one would say “I want that Subway tile used in New York”. So, over time, any rectangular sort of tile now became “Subway Tile” and the phrase has stuck through the years.

What we know is that from about the late 1800’s to about 1920, most kitchens and baths had an antiseptic look: white ceramic floors and walls. After 1920, though, the influence of the Arts & Crafts Movement introduced color.

Today, the use of subway tile in building and remodeling is widespread and the look that subway tiles bring to a project many would say is timeless. We agree and we truly do love the look of subway tiles in many shapes, colors, styles, and sizes. We offer many subway tile choices on the AnchorBayTile website so feel free to browse our selection at your leisure.

If you have any product questions we can answer please don’t hesitate to contact us anytime.

We have often heard in the past several years during this never-ending housing crisis we find ourselves in that there has been a “perfect storm” of events that led us in to this housing market mess. Well, I think that an argument can be made that there is now a perfect storm of events coming together that may assist us in getting out of this mess.

Take a look at the following factors now making their presence felt in the US economy. Most economists agree that the job market is slowly gaining momentum with more Americans getting back to work and the unemployment rate starting to decrease. The National Association of Realtors reported this past Monday that existing home sales dropped 9.6%, and the median price, $156,100 was the lowest since February 2002. Finally, mortgage rates, which were trending upward in the fall and winter months, have been falling in recent weeks amid global turmoil in the Middle East and the crisis in Japan. Rates for 30 year loans recently were well below 5%.

All of this news together means that it is a great time to be shopping for a house if you are ready and you are willing to move once you identify the right property for your family. With the economic news slowly getting better and sellers having waited long enough that they are actually listing their properties at realistic asking prices, the “perfect storm” that the real estate market needs might just be in place right now. Sales of homes this spring are predicted to show a big improvement over home sales levels from last year at the same time.

With sellers pricing their homes realistically and home builders in many markets offering home buyer and broker incentives, this is a great time to get back in to the market if you have been sitting on the sidelines for awhile.

With the housing market still on wobbly footing the credit markets have taken a cautious approach to increasing their lending volumes in the housing sector. While the credit markets are better than they were two years ago we still have a long way to go before lenders are themselves confident in the economic recovery now taking hold in the US. With that being said, it may take jumping through a few more hoops to finance that home improvement project that you are thinking about but it is still possible to do if you are willing to put in a little research on the computer and time spent on the phone calling a few lenders in your area.

Gone are the days when some lenders were willing to lend more than 100% of a home’s value. Lenders are still licking their wounds from the housing crisis that were inflicted by deep loan losses and the bleeding hasn’t stopped yet, especially in markets where foreclosures and short sales still dominate. Even if you have enough equity to borrow against, it’s going to be difficult to find a lender. But while credit lines and Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC’s) are still possible – as is taking out a personal loan based on your signature, albeit at a higher rate, there are other options that we have spoken about previously on our Blog which still should be considered.

Front and center on the home improvement loan popularity scale is the Federal Housing Administration’s 203(k) rehabilitation loan program which has been a hot ticket for investors who are picking up distressed properties and renovating them for sale. Investors like the 203(k) loan program because it allows them to roll the cost of the improvements in to the loan amount to make a single loan.

But regular buyers also can use the 203(k) for homes where they plan to perform improvements before they move in to the home. And current homeowners can use the program as a refinancing tool to incorporate the cost of their home improvements in to a brand new first mortgage.

We won’t spoil the fun by writing about all of the 203(k) loan program goodies here. Visit the HUD website to learn more about the program and to see if it fit’s in with your home improvement plans. And please remember to keep us in mind when it comes to purchasing your tile for that Kitchen or Bath remodel.

Since the temperatures out here in Arizona have warmed up to the point where it is almost time to break out the shorts again, it is time to spend a weekend cleaning up a bit around the yard and in the house. For folks here in the Southwest and West you may be saying the same thing. For folks in the Midwest and Eastern part of the country you may have four to six more weeks of weekend relaxation before you need to do much to begin readying for summer.

Like the rest of the country this Winter we had some truly cold spells here in Arizona that dropped temperatures down in to the 20’s and 30’s in the late nights in December and January. Perhaps not so bad by Boston and New York standards but pretty darn cold for us. We lost some trees and bushes in the yard and we were worried about some of the exterior pipes on our coldest nights.

This weekend we plan to do a home health checkup to make sure our small palace as we like to call it is in good shape for the hot AZ summer that is upon us. When you are ready to do the same with your home we wanted to share some tips on some of the things you might want to do.

* Clean out the garage of things that have been accumulated over the past year that you have no plans for or will not need
* Clean and repair any outdoor furniture that may need some TLC
* Inspect the roof for winter damage and repair any leaks or broken shingles or tiles
* Take the time to touch up the house trim and woodwork by scraping, priming, and painting areas that need it
* Clear away any dead trees and bushes and pull any pesky weeds that may have been hanging around
* Inside the home change filters monthly for air conditioning and heating filters, clean vents, and make sure furniture is not blocking any vents
* Wash windows inside and out
* Drain sediment from hot water heaters
* Vacuum around the house and under furniture to get rid of dust and pet dander

That is probably more than enough for a weekend to get started. Enlist the whole family to help so the work load is much easier.

Good luck with your home projects and I know that for us, we will welcome Monday’s arrival since this weekend will be a busy one.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal noted how Banks are gradually requiring potential home buyers seeking conventional loans to put down more money when purchasing a home. This new effort mostly applies to conventional loans that are backed by mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. It is a result of data which clearly show that areas where down payment requirements were very low during the housing boom are areas that were hit the hardest by the housing crisis.

A 2009 Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis study concluded buyers who made smaller down payments were more likely to default during “unfavorable economic circumstances” such as a housing market slowdown or job loss. This is exactly what happened during the housing crisis and the markets where down payment requirements approached zero were hit the hardest. In addition, banks have found that larger down payments discourage delinquencies by increasing the buyer’s exposure to loss and reducing the impact of declining prices.

The median down payment hovered around 20% in the late 1990’s and began to creep downward in 2001. Today, the median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22% last year on properties purchased through conventional mortgages according to a study conducted on behalf of the Wall Street Journal.

If you are in the market to purchase a home and you can not afford a 10% – 20% down payment, the article noted that many potential home buyers are turning to alternative loan programs such as loans for veterans or those backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Consult your mortgage loan professional in your area to discuss available programs where you might qualify. It takes a little more work but the effort is often worth the investment in time.

We’ve had a few questions about what size grout joints to use with our new Cottage Lane subway tiles so we wanted to answer that question today in our Blog post. Most ceramic wall tiles today are designed to be installed using grout joints of at least 1/8” in width. Our Cottage Lane subway tiles are no exception to the rule and we also recommend to keep the grout joints tight at a 1/8” width in order to preserve the “clean” look of the traditional subway tile “running brick” installation.

Give us a call anytime if you have questions about installing our Cottage Lane subway tiles or any of the tiles on our website.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that housing affordability has now returned to levels not seen since 1989 – 2003 when affordability rested at historical average levels.

The article notes that during the boom, “lax lending and speculation pushed house price inflation far beyond the modest rise in household income”. Most economists feel that the housing boom began in 2003 and nationally the ratio of home prices to annual household income reached a peak of 2.3 in late 2005. But by last September it had fallen to 1.6, matching the lowest level in 35 years the data have been collected and well below the historical average of 1.9 between 1989 and 2003 as noted in the Wall Street Journal article.

Most folks believe that now is a great time to buy if you can qualify for a loan given that Banks are raising the bar on lending standards. We are starting to see lots of consistent signals that markets and consumers have a better outlook on prospects going forward. The biggest hurdle to overcome economically is to get employers hiring and thus lower the unemployment rate.

If that goal can be accomplished then housing, consumer spending, and everything around those two pillars of the economy will show improvement.

You spoke and we listened. We have had several comments from customers suggesting that we offer some form of customer reviews on our website since many clients who shop online like to read the product feedback of those who have already purchased from a company.

We are the same at AnchorBayTile. When many of us shop online we too read the product reviews from other customers to allow us to get a feel for what others think about a product and a company. So we decided to do something about this for our own website.

It took longer than expected because we first needed to find a technical solution that made sense both for us and for our customers. This actually took some time but once we identified a potential solution that actually worked it was only a matter of time before we finalized the details and implemented the reviews feature on our website.

We would like to encourage all of our past clients who may be regular Blog readers to please leave a comment about the product(s) which you purchased from us. The feedback would be welcomed by potential clients and the team here at ABT always appreciates when past and present customers care enough to take the time to engage with our company.

As always, we appreciate your support!