the tile

it was always understood that when i married, it had to be to a handy man. i have five brothers and while some are more handy than others, lets just say handiness is lacking in my family. so when i met tyrell, i knew he would fit the bill.

he is handy alright, and it is really nice to have someone who can fix things (especially because i have a tendency to break things). after we bought the house and made the decision to fix it up, tyrell was sure he could do all the improvements himself. now the improvements we wanted to make, also included things he had never done before, and one of those things was tiling.

my mom was a lot of help and came up to get us started. she was here to tell us what supplies we would need and the basics of tiling. but unfortunately we had to send her back to AZ before we actually started.

so last friday we were finally in a position to lay tile. after tyrell had asked all the questions he thought he needed, he started mixing the thin set. i was not at the house when he started and when i arrived at the house he was a bit frantic. he was trying to mix the thin set in a 5 gallon bucket with an old piece of baseboard. he was stirring with all his might (because at this point the mixture was barely moist at all) and complaining that the ratio of thin-set to water on the bag was not correct. i read the instructions and asked if he has added the right amount of water. after realizing that he had only put half as much as it called for, we added the rest of the water (and a bit more) and the thin set was still pretty dry and lumpy.

(don't let the smile fool you... this was a real low point)

so as always, my mother was called ( because she is our point of reference) and we asked what consistency the thin -set should be. she told us it should be "cream of wheat-y". well this is a pretty relative reference and after talking to her we called my friend chuck. he told us it should be the consistency of peanut butter. so after we spoke to our food relating references, we took our lumpy thin- set and laid the cement board. (we were on a time crunch because you only have two hours of working time once you start mixing the thin-set)

anyway after a long process, with lots of questions, lots of... 'i don't knows', some yelling,

a few mild explitives,

and some referencing to the flooring book,

he was finally able to lay the first tile.

and after a whole days work... he was able to lay three tiles. learning is a long process.

upon my suggestion he went to the class they have at home depot the next day. he was able to ask all his questions and get a visual (non food related) idea of the correct consistency of thin set. i think that this next week laying tile should be a little easier.

thanks tyrell for being so talented!!

later: adventures in framing, drywall and electrical.