Tiling the Shower (Days 4 and 5)

Absolutely nothing happened in the shower on Day 4, as the tile-setter was whipped and opted to employ Scarlett O'Hara's mantra, "Tomorrow is another day."

Day 5, however, was a different story.  As soon as The Husband left for work, I got busy.  By the time he came home from work, I was almost finished setting the tiles on the walls.  I'd been climbing in an out of a chair all day.  My gimpy knee was the size of a cantaloupe, my back was aching, and my stomach was growling from hunger.  My face and hair were freckled with tile-saw spit.  He took pity on me and pitched in to saw the final triangles for the gaps at the ceiling, and then he sent me for a much-needed shower (in another bathroom, of course) while he cleaned tools and vaccuumed debris.  Bless him.

There's still a little more to do, but, overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the job we've done so far.  There is one spot on one wall that doesn't suit me, a place where a tile slipped after I pinched a rubber spacer from beneath it when I was tiling on the opposite wall.  The slippage created a "kink" in the diagonal grout line that, though probably not noticeable to a casual observer, will likely annoy me for the rest of my life, but I have a feeling that trying to correct it at this point might stir up a whole mess of trouble.

What remains to be tiled is a strip at the edge of the doorway, the step-over, and the floor.  We also have to figure out how to deal with a couple of raw edges - places where tile meets sheetrock - as nothing we saw at the tile store seemed right for the job.  I'll finish the doorway and the step-over today.  I think I could finish the floor, too, but I am contemplating waiting to lay the floor tiles until we've grouted the walls.  The tile we chose for the floor is 1" square tiles affixed to a 12" x 12" sheet of mesh.  It should be easy to lay, but I am worried that walking on it, and especially setting a chair or step-ladder on it, while grouting the walls might dislodge, chip, or crack the tiny pieces.  As for the edge-finishing part...well, tomorrow is another day.