One By One

How long have I been saying that I’ve got showers to tile? A month? Two? Actually, the answer is fifty-three days that I’ve been ready for tile, if only that wild-tile chase hadn’t take me so long, and I didn’t get distracted by kitchen cabinets. Ah, the beauty of having a dated record of all of your procrastination techniques home improvement projects.

For a while there I was living pretty much on adrenaline as I juggled half a dozen different things and managed to stay seven steps ahead of myself while I was at it, but as you might have been able to tell from my last post, after I got through the worst of the craziness my body began to shut down for recovery… starting with my brain.

It’s always a bit of a shock when this happens. I find myself standing in the middle of the garage looking blankly around me for… what was I looking for again? Just last week I was painting rooms while scheduling deliveries and snapping pictures for my posts during the lunch break of ten hour work days, and today I cannot for the life of me find one of our seven utility knives which apparently is a key tool required for getting tile on the bathroom walls.

Basically it took me five hours just to get to this point in the tiling process:

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Sigh. The anti-badass.

At the end of two days this is what I have to show for myself. I’ve take the full bath from looking like this:

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To looking like this:

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And I also have a four inch bruise covering both cheeks of my ass from spending ten hours sitting on the ledge of a bathtub. There’s a lesson in that probably, but I haven’t quite figured out what it is yet.

I had to stop my progress there because 1.) the tedium of trying to space irregular hand-made tiles made me want to stab myself with a thinset trowel, and 2.) I completely forgot to get the corner shelves for the shower, and just barely remembered before I tiled too far.

I actually don’t mind tiling, even with the hand-made tiles. I didn’t anticipate how difficult the spacing would be, but it’s still pretty mindless and relaxing once you get into a rhythm. My problem is that with my brain deprived of the adrenaline it’s grown so accustomed to in the last few weeks, finding that rhythm has been difficult. So difficult, in fact, that I actually put down the tools this weekend to spend several hours cleaning the house.

Yeah.

If you just fell out of your chair, believe me, MysteryMan had the same reaction.

I think my point here may be this– I probably seem like I have my shit together at least a fair amount if you only know me by reading this website. But even with my fearless attitude about taking on big DIY projects, there are still a good number of days where I struggle with these things just like a person who has never picked up a grout float before.

And I think the trick to it is this: One tile at a time, even when it’s tough, and eventually you’ll get where you want to be.

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Which is to say, finished with at least one of the showers.

8 Responses

    1. The fact that I love the tile is making a difference! I can’t imagine what it would be like if I got this far and didn’t love it. Whew.

  1. I think you’re doing awesome. Every time I check in with you, you’ve made a bunch of progress. It may seem slow-going because you’re so close to it all, but you’re surely getting there.

    Tiles are looking good.

  2. You don’t know how bad I wish you were my lil sis. I’d so be over there helping! Well, it would probably help if you lived closer 🙂 Sending good vibes your way . . . .

  3. In my eyes you still kick ass even if your ass is permanently bruised! I love how the handmade tile looks! I’ve been waiting to see what you ended up picking and where you got it.

    Just think in no time you’ll be actually showering in there…now that’s a big improvement. Keep your chin up girl!

    1. Would you believe that tile came from a shop about two miles down the street from me? After ALL that searching.

      It wasn’t cheap, but I really do like the irregular shape, even if it is quite the pain to space.

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