It looks like there’s a degree throughout each huge mission I undertake once I simply have to take a break and have a very good cry. I didn’t fairly attain that time yesterday, however I got here very shut. And actually, the one factor that stored me from doing that was my telling myself, “Kristi, there’s no time to waste on that! It received’t assist any. Simply hold going!”
The mission I labored on yesterday was cleansing up the tile within the bathe to get it able to grout. And let me inform you, there have been locations on that tile that have been an entire mess, as you may see right here…
That’s dried mortar. The mortar on the floor of the tiles was straightforward sufficient to take away. I used a giant sponge to place a really liberal quantity of soapy water onto these areas, and after giving it a couple of minutes to soak, the mortar scraped proper off. That was easy sufficient.
The half that wasn’t really easy was eradicating the mortar from between the tiles.
It in all probability would have been a lot simpler had I cleaned all of that up the day after I tiled (i.e., inside that first 12 hours). However no, I waited every week. And the factor is that I knew I used to be making a troublesome job for myself, however my fingers harm too badly to care. I’d let Future Kristi take care of that.
Properly, Future Kristi was Yesterday’s Kristi, and he or she was not a contented camper. It was such sluggish work that required using my Dremel Multi-Max. And even then, the mortar was so onerous that it didn’t come out simply in any respect. I don’t even know the way lengthy I labored, and I managed to get all the sloped ground cleaned up with clear grout strains.
However as you may see, I nonetheless have just a few extra areas on the extent a part of the ground.
So study from my mistake. Clear up these grout strains as quickly as you may. The rationale I didn’t do it as I put in the tiles is as a result of each time I’d attempt to clear the grout strains, the tiles would transfer and shift. So I actually did plan on letting the tiles dry for just some hours, after which going again and clearing the grout strains. However then I didn’t. After which I procrastinated. And earlier than I knew it, every week had handed. Yeah, don’t try this.
I additionally bumped into one other drawback yesterday. Throughout one in every of my breaks, I used to be scrolling Instagram and I got here throughout an image of a canine bathe that had the identical penny tile design that I had deliberate to make use of on the bathe head wall of our bathe, which is that this wall within the bathe.
By the best way, I had somebody ask the place the drain was within the bathe. These lengthy gold issues on the ground are the drains. There are two of them. ?
Right here’s the image I got here throughout on Instagram exhibiting the identical penny tile design I had deliberate to make use of…
Are you able to see that fairly little penny tile inset design? If you happen to can’t see the image above, you may see it on Instagram right here.
Whereas that’s the design I had deliberate on, I had needed to make use of both three or 5 rows of penny tiles to create my design as an alternative of only one. So I grabbed a sheet of the penny tile, lower it into strips of three rows, and tried to put out the design.
It didn’t work.
I had seen photos the place others had used three or 4 rows of penny tiles to create containers, Greek key designs, and different comparable designs, so I couldn’t perceive why I couldn’t get it to work. So I received on-line and appeared up a few of these designs, and I noticed precisely why.
I’m not going to submit these photos on this weblog submit as a result of I simply have a rule that I’ll by no means submit one other individual’s image on my weblog solely to criticize it. And I wouldn’t actually name this a criticism as a lot because it’s only a matter of private style and private tolerance for imperfection.
However once you use penny tile to create any design that has 90-degree corners, the corners are typically…effectively, not as clear and ideal as I would wish them to be in my house. Different individuals have a a lot larger tolerance for imperfect corners, and I say extra energy to ’em. And from a distance, these designs look implausible, which is why I had deliberate to do the identical in our bathe. However there’s no method I might have a look at these corners up shut day after day. You’ll be able to see what I imply right here: black penny tile design on white subway tile and blue penny tile border set in glass tile.
So now I’m again to sq. one with arising with a method to make use of the penny tile as an accent on that bathe wall. I particularly need it to be solely on that wall as a result of I don’t need it seen when standing within the lavatory, so meaning no horizontal stripes that go across the whole bathe (which was my unique concept). So it must be a design that’s simply confined to the bathe head wall. And I solely purchased 18 sq. toes for the entire lavatory (i.e., accent within the bathe and accent on the wainscoting that goes across the lavatory). I can purchase extra if I actually need to, however I’d relatively not. I’ve a sense I’ll have to, although. Ugh.
Any concepts?
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I transform and embellish the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do the vast majority of the work on the home on my own. You’ll be able to study extra about me right here.
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