Tiling our Tiny Bathroom

Well now that I've come down off the high of the staircase (not really), it's time to shift focus back to the bathroom. This past very rainy weekend, Josh began to prep the floors for the tile that was going in, install tile, and grout! The rain provided quite the challenge. It meant that all cutting of the cement board had to happen inside. If you would have told me that like two and a half months ago, I probably would've freaked out. Now, whatever works! This whole experience has taught me so many life lessons in such a short time - I've learned to be more patient, more appreciative, more easy-going, more understanding, etc. Sorry, the counselor in me came out :) Here's a glimpse at the indoor cement board cutting. 

I'll skip the boring stuff about applying the thin set onto the ground and then installing the cement board over it. After a few cuts to accommodate the plumbing, in it went! 

Subfloor is in! This was Josh's first experience with joint compound/tape. It'll be on when he starts to drywall. 

Let's talk tiles. In my inspiration picture, I showed that I was picking Carrara tile. There is really no special reason I picked it, other than the fact that I just love the look. I ended up picking honed hexagon venato 1 inch tile. I love the little hexagons and I figured big hexagons would've looked silly in such a small space. So next up was a lot of placing the tile and seeing where I liked it. I think this was the winning combo. By the way, meet Josh's "tile pants". 

Once we had the arrangement down, it was time to actually lay those little beauties down. I'm pretty sure you use the same stuff to lay the tile down as you do the cement board. Josh always tells me he will walk me through and tell me "how-to", but he's usually too busy actually doing all the work :)

After all the tile was in, it was time to grout. Looking back, before I actually came face to face with decisions, I kept thinking - "Oh my goodness, all these decisions - I will never be able to pick!" When in fact, it's quite easy if you like doing it. But in this instance, I was very brave and sent Josh off to Home Depot all by himself. Can you believe I trusted him to pick out the grout color for my precious tile?! (See above about all those sacred virtues I'm practicing :) I told him I wanted a greyish-white. He came home with "Snow White" which turns out to be the exact color I would've chosen. Good job J! 

So we had to wait 24 hours before we could grout the tile. After about 2 hours of grouting and sponging (and hovering), Josh was done. Until he had to wait two hours to wipe it all down one final time. I mean seriously, what is with all the waiting?! And THEN you have to wait three DAYS to seal it. 

Mixing the grout.. 

Laying it down and then sponging off the "haze" that the grout causes all over the tiles. 

Now, our freshly laid tile and grout look like this. What do you think? 

From the room.. 

A little closer... 

Up close!

I, for one, am in love!