Tada! We have ceramic tile in our guest bathroom now 😀 (see pictures in the extended section.) It was a long day, and even Tim admitted towards the end that “this is harder than I thought it would be” and also said it took longer than he thought it would.
Disclaimer – we know why it took longer. We followed the instructions in the tiling book and found the center of the room and worked out from there. With this room, that means we had to make cuts on tiles that touched each surface (cabinet, wall, around toilet base, and bathtub). If we had done what we thought, we would have laid them out to maximize the tiles, i.e., using the most full tiles and only making minimal cuts. The way we did it, following the book, we had to make twice as many cuts. I don’t think we’ll be doing that in the other rooms. It just took too long, way too long. We’re going to try to lay out the kitchen, laundry and breakfast rooms to use the most tiles. As it stands right now, we’re probably going to have to go back and buy more tile because of all the cuts we had to make in the first bathroom. We wasted a lot of tile and used some of what we bought for the other rooms. Bummer.
I discovered my role in this project. Gopher extraordinaire! Especially in this room, because it is so narrow, only one person could work. But, even when we get to the kitchen, I don’t think I’ll be able to lay down the mortar and set the tiles. My job is to go get things when Tim asks for him, to hand him tiles, hand him spacers, hand him his level, hand him the mallet and 2×4, etc. Or “could you run go get me this”, that’s my job. I’m pretty darn good at it too, I might add. 
Here’s a couple of pictures, I couldn’t take much of him working because of the size of the room, I couldn’t see where he was working!
Laying mortar (adhesive) for another section:
And TADA, the finished product… we have to wait for it to set 24 hours, then we’ll start on the grout. Then it has to be sealed…. sigh, this is going to be a long project!!
Hey, that’s pretty darn impressive, all in a matter of 3-4 days, I think. Good job. How do you get the grout in without it getting on the tile?
Can’t wait to see next phase.
Went to Home Depot yesterday to see your tile color, but forgot the name, did see the grout color, nice.
Keep up the good work !!
Suzanne, there is no way to get the grout in without getting it on the tile. Unfortunately, you have to take a cloth or sponge and wipe off the grout without wiping it out of the grout lines! All very tedious, and I think you might have to wait a certain time after putting the grout on before you can start the sponging process to get the excess off, but not too long!
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