The final wall area was around the shower head and under it on the bit of ceiling that has the shower light.
I didn’t mix mortar for these two areas but used the acrylic mastic. Plain unmodified mortar is specified for Kerdi and that was used everywhere but on the baseboards and this area. I needed a more sticky mortar here and I decided it would be easier to use mastic. My guess is that it will last just fine.
I did not have enough dark brown trim tiles left to do this edge. So I considered using the floor and niche tiles instead. I have several of the lighter brown trim tiles but they are thinner than the dark brown tiles.
Fortunately a friend who does remodeling was visiting and I asked her. She said using the marble trim would be a better match. So I found one non matching tile that was close to the trim tile I had left. I just needed one more piece! But the one I bought was thin and brittle and it broke as I cut it.
So how could I solve the problem of this edge? I went to the Home Depot fully prepared to drive further to the tile store if I couldn’t find anything. But by standing in front of the tile and considering various non-starters I found tumbled marble pencil tiles. I only needed three so the stiff per piece cost was a necessary evil.
Trim tile on shower head wall
To hold the edge up during the install I cut a piece of leftover drywall and held it up with a leftover plastic pipe because I didn’t have a 77” piece of wood or a 96” piece I was willing to sacrifice. There were two tile pieces under the drywall to space the tile edge correctly.
Plywood may have been a better choice. Or perhaps I could have cut a second support. The drywall bent a little and I had to shim the edge tile to make it approximately level.
I was able to use the diamond edge hole saws I bought for the granite to make an almost perfect hole for the shower head. Although expensive it is lovely to have good tools that work. But I did cut the hole into two different tiles because the first was slightly off.
Above the trim there were just a few more tiles to cut and install.
Shower head wall tiled
The next area was the small ceiling under this wall. The hole for the light was cut with the grinder wheel. The light trim will cover the unevenness. I also had to cut this tile twice because I put the hole in the wrong corner of the tile the first time. It was the mirror image of the correct placement. Ah amateurs.
First tile on ceiling
Just to make the job easier I only installed one tile at a time on the ceiling and held them in place with the pipe until they dried. I did one towards late afternoon and the other two the next day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Completed ceiling
Progress on this project feels great. Now I need to tackle the shower floor!