All the Best Laid Plans...

Have you ever imagined a project turning out beautifully and then being a little disappointed about the final result? This has been my experience for so many projects. But not this time.

When my husband and I bought our beautiful Italian tiles six years ago, we hauled them home and priced out professional installation. Ouch. Doing it ourselves? Scary. We are musicians, not skilled laborers. There they sat. Well, not exactly. They got moved upstairs and down several times and we finally relegated them to a corner of the garage, where they sulked at our cowardice, and petulantly allowed us to stub our toes on them.We considered selling them about a year ago. It seemed the project would never get done.

I'm not sure what pushed me over the edge, but this summer I got my DYI savvy daughter to help me tear out the old linoleum (yuck) and carpet (yuckier).  There it sat, the bare sub floor, and the toilet that was now in the shower, awaiting it's new Italian base.

I had a friend (now worth his weight in tile, er-gold) who delivered his wet saw to my garage and provided valuable information on how to cut, and lay tile. He back-buttered this tutorial  (tile laying shop talk) with profuse amounts of encouragement.

I finally felt ready, and with a substantial amount of fear and trembling fired up the saw. (I did do my measurement homework) Just so you know, the new revised motto for novices is measure 6 times and cut once. I dry laid the tiles, and it looked like it would all work!

My husband kicked in his muscle for the mortar laying and grouting. I couldn't have finished without him. At one point I think we were fighting over the trowel.

The result was so many times more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. I almost think that little elves (maybe big ones) came in overnight and did a professional job for me. My goal was to have it finished before Thanksgiving, and now I have one more thing to be thankful for. A beautiful new Italian tiled bathroom! Finally.