Tile is going to take over the blog for a little bit.
I do still have some other writing going on and planned for release – some things about Stephen King, storytelling, and audiobooks, to name a few – but i am in the middle of a tile job right now and decided to share about it here.
In part, this will help me think and stay focused, in part it is good exercise to write anything at all, and i find it interesting and hope you will too.
The first few days were surface preparation, collecting and moving materials, and then doing a “dry lay”.
Not everybody does a dry lay. I don’t do them on every job. But for larger areas and when working with new and unfamiliar materials, it can help you find problem areas before they occur. Once you have your template established, the rest of the work goes down like butter beans.
I don’t know who did this or why, but there was a lot of mortar at the junction between the slab and the house.
I used my hammer, 7-in-1 and an ancient chisel to vanquish 74 linear feet of that mess.
After two days of power-washing the area and a good dry lay yesterday, today i mixed mud and started layin’ it down.
I don’t know how it is wherever you are, but it has been a bit hot here lately. Yesterday and today we have had a “real feel” temp of 107-108. You could say this is slowing me down a little bit.
I work a few hours in the morning and then again in the evening. This morning i had the most brilliant idea – one could say innovation. I am tiling with my knee-pads, old running shoes, latex gloves, and underpants. I am sure it is quite a sight, but it is definitely comfortable.
More pics and tales to come. This project has a few neat features that i will share with you in the next episodes
Oooh yes. Pics, please. Heh.
I think most dudes probably look a little better in their clothes than out of them once they hit the mid 30s 😉