The Tata Group of India has introduced a pre-fabricated home concept that will sell for approximately $700 per home when all is said and done. The home has a separate living area, fully equipped kitchen, bedroom and bath areas that all together make this unit a nice dwelling for the money.

Dubbed the Nano house, the Economic Times of India reports that the flatpack dwelling comes with pre-fabricated materials, including doors and windows, for a house of around 215 square feet in size. Materials consist of coconut or jute cladding complete with interior layouts. The proposed price of the ready-to-assemble kit is said to be just $US700. The homes take about one week to assemble and complete in most cases before they can be used.

Tata sells the homes primarily in India at the moment but they are aggressively seeking international distribution for their small home in countries across the globe. These homes we acknowledge are small but in our view are very livable considering the price tag.

Visit the Tata Group site to learn more about pricing, specs, and delivery.

Check out this amazing piece of art done by Artist Scott Gunderson. This portrait is named “Grace” by the artist and measures 66″ x 96″ and is made up of………..guess……..how many wine corks?? The portrait is made up of 9,217 wine corks that apparently are all donated to the artist by folks who support his work.

If you would like to support Scott Gunderson’s cork art you can contact him via his website here. Beautiful work Scott!

Our Arizona Diamondbacks were shown no baseball love this year by the sports world and I have to say we were skeptical too of their chances of winning in the NL West division. But alas they proved the doubters wrong and they persevered through a long season to win their division and become NL West Division champs.

We thought we would celebrate with our own “deal of the day” one day deal for our customers who read our blog. Since our Arizona Diamondbacks are 2011 NL West division champs we are going to offer our Classic Hexagon 1″ x 1″ tiles for $11.00 per square foot for one day only – today Monday.

To enjoy this special price you must call in your order to us via the toll free number listed on our home page and ask for the Diamondbacks deal of the day. Order must be for fifteen sheets or more and the order must be paid and completed on Monday 9/26.

We look forward to speaking with our customers who are baseball fans……….and even those who are not fans. Give us a call anyway as we always love to chat.

Have a good week everybody!

We were blown away when we received these very nice photos from a customer who used our Solana Glass subway tiles in our Cool Blue color as the primary tile for their shower. We love the tile pebbles the customer used on the shower floor and inset in a shower shelf. We have never seen the two paired together before but we love the look.

Keep in mind when doing such a project that our Solana Glass subway tiles also come available with matching glass tile quarter round trim pieces which are also in stock at any time.

We would love to hear what you think about the glass subway tiles in cool blue paired with the river rock pebbles. Leave a comment below with your thoughts which we promise to share with our readers.

Despite the sluggish housing market, home prices in many housing markets located in metro areas in and around the middle of the US are showing pockets of health.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that markets such as Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Mo., and Milwaukee, WI all showed gains in housing prices in the second quarter according to the latest government figures. What does this all mean given that the US still finds itself mired in a long and deep slump in the housing market?

Most likely the numbers show that people in those places and several others bought more than the usual number of expensive properties in the April – June time period. But that magnifies the point according to the times article because surprisingly, folks in those areas are still willing to spend the money to buy what are considered expensive properties for their areas relative to the median price in their housing market.

Families who have the money to spend are probably taking advantage of very attractive mortgage rates that have no where to go but up from their current levels. For example, if prices remain the same and rates climb from 4.5% to 5.5% the same $200,000 house will cost 12% more each month to own. If rates should rise 2 percentage points to 6.5%, the mortgage payment on that same house would rise 25%. So folks with money to spend are being smart with their money and picking up good properties at attractive prices with mortgage rates that won’t be this low forever.

If you have the money to spend and are in the market for a home this is a pretty good time to buy.

For those of you in project planning mode we wanted to share some beautiful photos of a completed tile project sent in by one of our clients. The clients used our Cottage Lane Beveled 3 x 6 subway tiles in Snowflake (white) and the project really came out very nice. We have many requests and questions about doing a Herringbone pattern using subway tiles and these photos are a great example of what can be done.

The client used the Cottage Lane Beveled 3 x 6 White subway tiles and framed their herringbone pattern using the Cottage Lane Rope Liner. We think the colors coordinate very well with the cabinets and the countertop and the Herringbone pattern really is a winner in this and we believe in any kitchen. The Herringbone pattern provides a focal point in the kitchen and is one of the better design elements that one can use to create “design interest” in a larger kitchen area.

Order a sample today of our Cottage Lane Beveled 3 x 6 subway tiles so you can begin planning your kitchen project before the upcoming holiday season.

Have a look at some of the project photos above from our Solana Glass Mosaic Tiles series featuring our smooth grey color 1” x 1” blends. This homeowner took the time and did the installation themself and the results as you can see are fantastic. Notice the color coordinating between the counters, the walls and much of the room’s décor if it was pictured. The homeowner tells us that the kitchen receives a number of compliments when guests come over to visit and we are so pleased to hear the positive feedback.

Remember, the Solana glass mosaic tile blends coordinate colors with our Solana glass subway tile colors for projects where a small and a larger tile would fit well together. We are always happy to lend a hand and offer an opinion or advice on coordinating tile colors with other items you are considering in your rooms. Feel free to give us a call anytime with your questions by phoning us toll free at the office number listed on our home page.

Good luck on your upcoming Tile project!

We talked last week about the Recess-It products from Innovis but we wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t also talk about what may be their most popular items and they are called the Better-Bench products. These products are an excellent choice when building a shower bench, step, or small seat. The Better-Bench products come in multiple sizes and are easy to install before or after the vertical wall tile is installed.
The Better-Bench products are made of long-lasting and corrosion resistant materials and they have a load capacity of 400 lbs on all of the bench products. Trust me when I say that this product is an installer’s best friend when re-doing a shower so don’t pass on an opportunity to make your life much easier when re-doing any shower or bathroom area.
Happy Tiling!

Having problems getting just the right cuts on your tiles? Tile saws are great for making straight cuts or ever so slight angled cuts on many types of tiles. However, making smaller angled cuts that require precision in a smaller area are better made using Tile Nippers.

Trying to use a tile saw to make such cuts would result in excessive blade wear and would also eat up quite a bit of your tile material with trying to get just the right cut and necessary adjustments as a result of using a larger blade to make a smaller cut.

Tile Nippers are made in different models with special cutting surfaces designed for use with either ceramic tile, porcelain tile, or glass tile. Choose the tile nippers made for your material and you will find the results to be true and accurate. For smaller, angled or specialized cuts you will find tile nippers to be a far superior choice for making cuts than using a tile saw.

For materials found on the anchorbaytile website we recommend using tile nippers when making cuts to our Classic Hexagon Porcelain tiles. Because of the small size of the individual pieces as well as those smaller pieces being mesh mounted we do not recommend making cuts to our Hexagon tiles using a tile saw. Tile Nippers are the better choice and we note this to our customers on each of our Hexagon tile samples.

So for those of you confronted with the challenge of how to make smaller, more detailed cuts on ceramic, porcelain, or glass tiles go out and pick up a pair of tile nippers at your local tool supply store to make your tile project go a little bit smoother than it otherwise would if forced to try these cuts with a tile saw.

Looking for an easy way to build a shower shelf in to your newly remodeled shower? Is your contractor unsure or unfamiliar with building a shower shelf from scratch? Innovis has been making shower products for many years and their Recess-It units are an excellent choice for shower shelf installations.

The Innovis Recess-It products are made of a corrosion resistant alloyed aluminum with an elastomeric-waterproofing and anti-fracture coating combined with an aggregate bonding base. Geez, bet you can’t say that three times quickly! What that means in English is the products are pretty tough, tile materials will bond to the Recess-It units with no problem, and their tough and durable construction will stand the test of time in your newly remodeled shower.

Head on over to the Innovis site, find a local distributor for their products and do consider the Recess-It units for your upcoming project. We can speak from experience that they are very well made and they will perform very well for any tile project.