Saturday, November 03, 2007

I'm Just A Lucky So and So

Edit: Pablo noticed that I have not used a song title for my post title in some time, so I came up with this good one. Extra points for anyone that can name either the original composer or any singer since then. The lady that did the version I am familiar with is one of my favorites.

Here are just a couple of pics of the tile work in the shower. I have most of the tile installed at this point and will have those photos up soon I hope. I picked a commercial, unglazed porcelain tile in a speckled light brown. I think it goes well with the slate and I just love the unglazed texture. It won't be slippery when it's wet either. I think it has a nice contemporary look too in the 2x2 size. It comes in 1'x2' sheets so it actually goes down pretty quickly once you get the lines laid out. Now, I ordered this from a local tile company rather than buying from Lowe's or one of those stores. The selection is so much better from a good tile supplier and they know what you need. I did try to find something at Lowe's because they had 2x2 tiles for about half what I paid for this but they just can't get you all you need. I wanted the cove tiles for the inside corners, bullnose for the edges, etc. and the people at Lowe's just look at you like you are asking them to pull a camel out of their ear if you want them to order such a thing.
Here you can see that I laid out 2 walls so that I could establish the joints going across and back. I installed these tiles and then had a secure basis for starting the tiles going up the walls while still having room to stand in the shower and work on the walls. I hate to sound like I am bragging but my good karma has just been hitting right on lately. If you look at the tiles closely you might see that the tiles all work out perfectly with no cuts at all across or back. The joints are all evenly spaced etc. Well, when we built this shower, I had no idea what kind of tile or anything that I was going to use so the size of the shower was just kind of arbitrary. We did not try to size the shower for the tile or anything, yet it hit dead on! If I had tried to size it I probably would have screwed it up royally. I got my mojo going on! Well, anyway... I really like those cove bottom corners because it gives you a nice smooth corner to clean. No sharp corners to try and get in there and scrub.
I'm still having to work Saturdays in Birmingham so things are not going as fast I would like although they never do. Tomorrow I hope to install the last pieces of tile that required cuts. These are the ones on the end of the curb, the vertical corners and I installed 2 cool shelves and need to cope the tile in around them. Then maybe one night during the week I can grout the whole thing. Allen installed the shower fixtures today so I could have a working shower by next weekend.

4 comments:

Woody said...

The tile work looks great. Tile is just so damned cool compared to the preformed fiber-plasti-glas-crap.

I know what you mean about the fine folks at lowes (or the other one). The blank stares. The slight tilt of the head. Then the cordless phone and 45 degree turn away to ask the great oz if we can do that.

From your pics of the locomotive shed it looks like ya'll should be close to wrap on swinging hammers. Then you'll have the time to work down your list.

Take care..get back in the mud soon.

peace

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

You could have a future as a glazer! Looks good.

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute! You have to clean shower tiles???

MamaHen said...

Hey Woody! Yes, tile is sooo much better. Lots of people have asked my why didn't I just buy one of those fiberglass shower units and just be done with it but I just couldn't do it. I know lots of people can't afford to spend what I did on this shower but if you can it's worth it. And I know the people at Lowe's are doing the best they can (I blame corporate Lowe's) but it's very aggravating because they have put so many good stores out of business. Half the time that I go in there I have other customers approach me asking for help. I usually go right after work so I guess they see the boots and think, hey, she works. Yes, we are close to being through with the concrete work and we have been told that they are trying to place about half of us now on other jobs. I hope I get to stay on for awhile since it is not too far from home. Rumors are we will be sent out of state if we don't stay on here.

Lord, Philip, I think it would kill me to set tile for a living! I am always so sore after installing tile but I'm not sure why.

Hey Pablo! yeah, Allen said the same thing. ;)