Day #
The day numbers refer to the day of work, not the actual number of days since we began tiling the house. For example, the latest post for Day 6 of tiling was actually the seventh day since we started. I’m doing this because I wanted to see how many work days were spent on tiling, as opposed to the calendar days that have passed.
Even this is somewhat inaccurate, since many of those work ‘days’ were just a few hours in the evening after work. For example, Day 1 was the last half of a Saturday (the day we bought the tile) and Days 3 thru 5 were after work days.
Tiling
I thought it might be interesting to post about how I’m actually installing the tile. I might be wrong, and it’s completely not interesting, but I’m doing it anyway. ;)
So… the way I picked the starting point may be somewhat unusual. Since we’re tiling the entire house, I wanted to have a line of complete tiles in front of the front door, and down the hallway from the garage. To accomplish this, I made a line of tiles from the hallway until I made it to the front door; then I recentered the line on the front door and made a new line heading toward the back rooms of the house.
This is why the tiles in the back hallway aren’t exactly centered on the space there. I’d rather have them centered on the main entry points of the house. Of course, I won’t know if I messed that up until I finish the guest room and start working my way out into the living room. Hopefully, everything will line up.
As to the actual laying of tile, it’s a pretty simple process. Mix the thin-set mortar, smear it around where you want the tile, then make the nice lines with the trowel and put the tile in place. You have to wiggle the tile a bit to make sure it sets nicely, but other than that (and putting in the spacers for an even appearance) it’s just mortar, place tile ad infinitum.
Anyway, I thought it might be worthwhile to post something of an explanation for the way we’re counting the days and the method behind the madness here. Hopefully anyone interested in the tiling will also find this useful!