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| Monica came back to do my shower tile. We're using 6"×6" artisan tile with cut-out corners, arranged in blocks of four with mostly black dots filling the spaces. Colored decorative dots replace three of the black ones for a little variety; Monica happened to have some deco dots that looked much like my house— that iconic gable roof— and they even had the round window where it should. The plan was to put the tile up one day, then come back the next after it had set and grout it. We got a late start (noon) and ended up working until 4am to make this happen. It was a lonnnnng day, broken only by dinner in town. The artisan tile is not super-perfect machine-like stuff, so it takes longer to work with as there are variations in the tile dimensions, but the results speak for themselves: fantastico! |
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| Taping & Bedding Seams | First Mortar | First Tiles | Wet Diamond Sawing |
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| First Row Done | Third Row | Finishing Fourth Row | Dots |
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| First Dots | Some Juju Helps | Leveling | Adjusting |
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| Wetting Cement Backer | 1st Wall Halfway Done | Up to Top of Glass Block | Green House Deco Dot |
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| Starting Top Row | 1st Wall Last Tile | 1st Wall Done | View Through Glass Block |
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| Starting 2nd Wall | Perky, Considering the Hour | First Four Rows Done | 2nd Wall Halfway Done |
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| Cutouts, etc | More Leveling | Last Tile Laid! |
| The next day we're back for the grouting. We'd noticed that the view of the tile wall through the glass block was most excellent: a trippy, ever-changing pattern of dots and lines dividing and moving and merging etc. We changed plans and decided to use gray grout instead of white so that the lines would continue to be visible. We had to go back to Monica's place to pick up some charcoal grout (this was a Sunday and not much was open), then mixed up a shade of light gray with 1 part charcoal to 12 parts white. The gray looks fine with the off-white body tile and dots— which is no surprise, really, since white/gray/black goes with everything. And, the grout lines are clearly visible through the block, swooping and changing as you move. Love it! |
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| Grouting 1st Wall | Grouting 2nd Wall | Sponged & All Done! | Deco Dot w/Gray Grout |