When I hadn’t finished all three tasks from the final inspection list in April by the August 28th deadline I got to feeling desperate that I would never finish the building permit so I looked around for a tile installer. The only thing left on the list is completing the family room bathroom shower.
Tile Guy-Tim King
I contacted a few tile installers and consulted the Nextdoor app to see if my neighbors had any recommendations. I don’t know what it is about my jobs but it is difficult to get someone to return my calls, or be available, or do estimates. Tim King who used to be a part time handyman but has started working at it full time made room in his schedule for the job and started in two weeks instead of two months.
I was very happy that he showed up on the scheduled day and got to work installing the tile.
Shower wall tile install
Originally I was going to create a mountain mural and put it centrally in place of three regular tiles.This was my inspiration after downloading several examples.
Sample mosaic
My imitation still needed work (lots of it) when Tim arrived.
My attempt at the mosaic
After toying with the idea of just leaving out three tiles and filling them in with the mosaic later, I gave up and had Tim install a trim feature instead. I got some 4×4 tumbled marble tiles when my kids moved to Germany. They were their leftovers and the tumbled stone looked great with my tile. I cut all the triangle tiles but it was a little tricky to install and took longer than anticipated.
Tumbled marble design
I like the look of the tile trim though it is a bit rustic due to varying sizes of the tile triangles.
Trim tile at back wall of shower
Trim tile at front of shower
In the time Tim allotted for the job, all of the walls to the ceiling and the trim tiles were installed. I still have the shower head area, a bit of ceiling, the niche tiles and the Schluter Kerdi shower floor system to install and tile. I’ll be using 2×2 mosaic tiles for the niches and floor. I’m thinking about a row of trim tile at the shower head wall. Hiring at least part of the job out helped to make progress so thanks to Tim King! Now I better get going on the rest. He might have time to return and help finish in a few weeks. I’ll have to see how the project goes.