The Tile Guy

No visible action today on the drywall front.  That's one of the first days since the days of pouring foundations where it appears nothing much happened on the house.

Yesterday we got to meet the Tile Guy.  We have a fair bit of tile going into the renovation:  two bathrooms, one with built-in shower, backsplashes on the kitchen walls, the laundry room floor, and a small bit of slate near the new exterior entrance.  We went over things carefully, and he was able to offer up a few suggestions to help finesse the overall "look" of some of what we had planned.

The best part, though, was actually getting to meet him.  Way back when we were getting excavation done, Jane and I were going to numerous tile places and doing a whole stack of research.  We'd heard conflicting advice on several fronts.  For instance, some shops insisted you couldn't use anything bigger than 2x2 inch tiles on the floor of a shower, while other places said 12x24 inch tiles would work just fine.  I thought I'd ask Gerald about this one morning while we were looking at the hole in the backyard.  Keep in mind, we didn't know each other very well at that point and  was more than a little nervous about things.

The conversation went kind of like this...

Chuck: We were looking at tile over the weekend, and have a few questions about conflicting advice we got.

Gerald: Oh?

C:  Yeah, one tile guy we talked to said you needed 2x2 tiles or smaller in the shower, while another tile guy...

G (interrupting):  Was this at the store?

C: Yes

G:  That's not a Tile Guy.  The Tile Guy is the guy who lays the tile on your floor, and he'll look at what you want to do and tell you what you can do and what you can't do.  These other people aren't tile guys.  They're tile salesmen.

etc. etc.

I had just been schooled. Ever since then, I've been looking forward to the day when we could actually meet the Tile Guy!