The Challenges of Doing It Yourself
One of the biggest challenges of being a home owner are the little projects that come up. Do you do it yourself or do you hire out the work?
It depends on the project and depends on your finances. In the case of tiling, I actually enjoy the work, though I hate the time it takes.
This past weekend, I decided I would put down the tile in the master bathroom I’ve been putting off for, well, a year. To be fair, I did set the tile and paint the other upstairs bathroom, so it’s not like I haven’t done anything myself in this house.
When it comes to do it yourself home improvement projects, I’ve learned there are three immutable rules to a project.
1. It’s not really a project without an injury.
2. It’s not really a project without a trip to the hardware store, usually several.
3. It’s not really a project unless something goes wrong, because it always does.
This little tile project was no exception. I had already put down the wire mesh, so I didn’t have to worry about cutting and scratching my hands and face again. However, several projects ago, I broke the guard on my tile saw. So when I got to the tile cutting part, little slivers of tile got lodged in my hand. I did wear eye protection, you have to with tile. This was a minor injury compared to past adventures. No trip to the E.R. so I was very happy.
With tile, you first have to measure the surface to know where to start tiling. You measure one side and mark it off with a chalk line in the dead center. Then you do the same thing for the other side. Now you know where to place the first tile.
Now that I knew where to place the tile, I mixed my mortar. I finally broke down and bought one of those drill attachments that turns my drill into a hand mixer. Money well spent. I gathered my tiles, my mortar trowel and my bucket of mortar. Now all I needed was my tile spacers. In this application, I’m using 18″ tiles with a 1/8th inch grout line. I normally use 1/4 inch spacers. Those I could find. The 1/8th inch not so much. Just as I was ready to break down and make the inevitable trip to Home Depot, my wife found them. Somehow I had forgotten that a year ago I put them in this bathroom cabinet in anticipation of completing this project.
Whew! I dodged law number two for the first time. This was going to be great. I quickly set the uncut tiles.
Now it was time to measure and cut the remaining tiles. I went back to the closet containing the tile and realized I only had three full tiles left, but I had a bunch of scraps from the other bathroom. Surely they would fit. After all, a year ago I had carefully measured the two rooms. I should have had enough. I usually even buy a little extra in case of breakage. Yup, the scraps didn’t fit. No big deal I thought. I’ll just cut all I have and set it and get more tile from the hardware store. After dodging rule number two once, it was about to rear its head.
It was six o’clock Saturday when I reached this point. I figured I would head out to the hardware store in the morning. Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I always buy my tile from Sutherlands. I’ve seen them in other parts of the country, so if you have one in your town, take advantage of what I’m about to tell you. Periodically they put their flooring like laminate and tile on sale for excellent prices. Normally they have a section of tile they sell for .99 a square foot. When they have their sales its .79 a square foot. They have an excellent selection though some of it looks obviously cheap. I don’t buy that kind.
At my last home, my wife wanted very nice tile for the kitchen. I relented and we paid about $4 per square foot. I’ll never do that again.
Back to my story. I headed out to the Sutherlands. There’s only one in town now and it’s twenty miles away. Now, one thing about the Sutherlands tile - they rarely stock the same stuff continuously. Now remember, I bought this a year ago. Sure enough, rule #2 and #3 struck at the same time. I couldn’t find identical tile. So I went to Lowes. I was hoping maybe they would have something close. No luck. Not willing to give up, I went to Home Depot. Snake eyes. Then I tried the local tile store. Closed.
My tile vacation was not going to end successfully. How much tile am I short to complete this project? Would you believe one? One tile short! The contingency plan is to cut up the remaining scraps and make a design. But first, one more trip to the local tile store.