Little did I know that week 1 would be a piece of cake compared to week 2. You know the saying “when it rains, it pours”? Yeah, that happened, but I will say that most of that was me getting in my own head.

***If you missed any previous updates, you can see them here 👉🏼 Plan, Week 1***

*Any links provided contain affiliate links. Meaning if you purchase through my link, while it’s the same cost to you, I get a small commission – see my full disclosure here*

Anywho, we left off last week with me planning to do a dry layout of the floor. I’ve laid tile a few times before, but this is my first time doing mosaics, not to mention attempting to add a border. The dry layout went off without a hitch and the spacing worked perfectly for adding a border. Berkley was ecstatic!

Since I was wanting to make progress before the plumber was able to come out to re-route the shower, I decided I wanted to complete the floor in 3 days 😅.

Everything I researched talks about the importance of the first row, so my plan for the first day was just to complete the first row against the tub, making it perfectly straight while also starting the border. The hardest part for me is always starting so I just went for it.

I got the first row in and everything looked good. The border pieces were a challenge because I had to individually add them in and make sure they were level, but it looked like it would work out!

And then I woke up the next morning and did some inspections. 6 tiles easily popped up, all of them on outer edge. Instead of trying to fix just those pieces, I decided it was best to scrape it all up and regroup.

Before I get to the NEW PLAN, here are some reasons why I think it failed/what I learned:

• It was one of our hottest days of the year, and although our house temperature was well within the range for the thinset, we had a large opening to the attic in our shower when they lowered the ceiling and added a light. I’m pretty sure that had a big affect on the thinset consistency and rushed me + stressed me out.

• Since I knew I was only doing the first row, that affected how much thinset I applied, causing those outer edges to not have enough. Looking back at a video, I could see how thin the mortar was in the areas where the tiles came off. I should have extended the amount I applied to ensure that there was enough underneath and then wiped away any excess.

• I was rushed {by nobody else but myself}. I wanted progress and didn’t want to wait for the plumber so I decided that the flooring needed to be completed before he came. When I do get the floor, the plan will be to work on as much as I can in a day without any disruptions instead of during nap times.

Now that we got the boo boo out of the way, and now being at least 4 days behind original schedule, let’s get to the new plan. The flooring traumatized me a bit, so I am taking a break from that. And we decided to scrap the border. It’s not that I don’t think I can do it, but the time and precision it will take to make sure it’s done correctly is time that is taken away from my 3 kids. Most of my doing this job is during school and nap times, in small chunks of time. This project is already taking more than that, and the border added a few more sacrifices. Plus I think the tile is beautiful by itself.

So new plan! I am going to do all the walls first, then shower and lastly floor. I don’t know if this is the “proper” way of doing it, but decided it was what is best for us. Stay tuned for next weeks update where you will see me adding beadboard plus color drenching the walls in SM Biscotti.

with love, andi