Shower Remodel, Weekend 9

Weekend 9 - April 6&7.  The tiling continues.  I didn't think I realized how long all of the tiling would take.  I believe (well hope really) that it's becasue of the pattern I chose.  You can't really work upward because the large mosaics won't support the weight of the larger tiles above them.  So I finally just went against conventional wisdom and started working from the top down.  Then you need tape to hold all the tiles in place.  So here you can see the work in progress, with blue painters tape holding tile in place as it dries.

A big thanks to Angie (Wry Me) for coming over to help for a few hours. She worked mainly on the wall while I started putting on the tiles along the curb and the edge near the vanity.

Shower Remodel, Weekend 7&8

This post is all about tile!  With the problems I had completing the flood test (leak test) I decided to just start tiling and avoid the bottom of the shower.  With the recessed niches being the hardest part of the tile layout, I started there first. 

This took an incredible amount of work...over 50 of the tiles here had to be cut to fit.  And the little mosaic accent tiles had their own problems.  I spent a good part of the first Saturday just planning the layout and deciding what to do for this part.  Then there was at least 12 hours of work getting the suckers cut and put on the walls.  The mosaics are attached to a mesh backing so they don't have to be installed individually, just cut out as much as you want and put the pieces together. The problem is that they can be squished together - so they can't support the weight of tiles placed above them until they dry.  Here is a detail of the back wall on the shelves.

 

Once the detail work was finished we were able to make some better progress.  I love the accent mosaics so I used a lot of them.  Maybe too many (I think it looks a little busy), but I'm happy with it.  

And lastly, I was finally able to complete the flood test by plugging the drain with a water balloon!
72 hours and no leaks!