Tiling the walls proved to be an interesting experience because the walls were all wonky. I don’t know if they were built that way or became that way as the house settled, but I do know that it took forever for the guys to figure out what to do about it.
In order to have level tiles they nailed level boards around the wall, near the floor. The challenge was that the floor slanted too so they had to figure out where to put the boards so there wouldn’t be a huge gap on one side of the wall.
Laying the wall tiles took much longer than laying the floor tiles. There were fewer cuts to make, but the tiles were smaller and harder to line up. I think they did a fantastic job!
Almost done! Once all the tiles were laid they had to dry overnight before we could grout them. But the floor had dried so we could grout it right away.
I don’t know why I keep saying “we”. I did hardly anything except keep the kids out of the way, make sure everyone was fed, and keep things fairly clean while they were working. Teacher, Dad and Uncle Jay are the ones who did all the hard work. They’re so awesome!
Here’s Teacher finishing up grouting the floor. Grouting doesn’t sound hard: apply the grout on the diagonal, wait several minutes, then wash the excess off the tiles. What they don’t tell you is that it’s like washing sand out of a kid’s hair – it just won’t go away. You rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse and there’s still grit left.
But it’s sooooo worth it when it’s done!
I don’t think they make anything level when they build. We had huge problems with our recent renovation of the sleepout, everything was way off, and whenever we’ve done wallpapaering (2 diff houses), the walls are never straight. It make things much harder, and it all takes longer. But like you say, worth it in the end 🙂