Jeff and I are exhausted. We feel like we have been tiling for days. I forget now whose brilliant idea it was to do a tiled shower and install it all ourselves (okay, so maybe fatigue causes amnesia, because I'm pretty sure Jeff could tell you who dreamt up the plan). This was definitely a labor of love; it couldn't be anything like the labor of childbirth because I hear that pain fades and you're ready to do it all over again. I'm pretty sure my tiling days are over. In Scarlet O'Sarah style (as Jeff calls me when I get dramatic and plaintive):
I shall never lay tile again!
Well, except for the bathroom floor. Because I still have that to go. And then, of course, the mudroom needs matching tile, so I'll have to do that one day. But after that, no more tiling ever! I hope. So, maybe just no more tiny glass mosaic tile showers with lots of fiddly cuts, itty bitty pieces, tricky obstacles, and special expensive thinset.
This innocent, naive smile is the face of a woman who completed the long back wall of the shower in a day and is sure she can wrap up the two small walls in just another day.
See this niche? The one we spent hours laying out, measuring, and framing so the tiling would be easy? Well, I can't imagine how long it would have taken if we had just decided to wing it, because this niche (and flanking sides) took almost two hours to tile! You're probably starting to realize that we did not, in fact, complete the rest of the shower very quickly. I won't divulge our pathetically slow pace, but suffice it to say that between Jeff and my professional billing rates, we are well on our way to a multi-thousand dollar shower surround!
That's just a teaser photo, because I have yet to grout the tile. But I will say that the shower looks really great (if you don't stand too close!) and we're quite pleased with the last minute tile switcheroo.
Feeling your pain! We've had a couple of big "Never again!" moments with this house.
ReplyDeleteFunny enough, we've said the same thing about childbirth too.