What have we been doing for these past two weeks you may ask?! Well, we have been tiling a bathroom in the middle of the country of course!
After meeting Gordon, our southern gentleman, we were assigned the task to create a bathroom that is plum flush and true. This may seem like an easy task to those who tile in the US but we are currently in Panama and walls here aren’t what you call straight; they have bumps indents and crookedness to them! On top of the wall straightness issue, the owner decided to paint his concrete walls while building the house which then demanded that we spend three days sandblasting and etching in marks in order to keep the tiles floating against gravity on the walls.
After the demolition days where over we went straight into the tile work. We spent hours making the tiles float where they needed to float and sink where they needed to sink. This was a bit stressful as all of us are perfectionists and it seemed completely rational for us to spend three hours placing three tiles on the wall!
After making some headway our boss came into the bathroom right before we placed the last row of tiles and said he wanted a rock wall in between the last two rows. We were both ecstatic and quickly moved his idea into the works. In the future we now know why a rock wall will cost $1000+ for installation in the US! Imagine placing rocks into concrete that then starts dripping down the walls and all you can do is shove concrete up a wall constantly hoping that the rocks you placed are in their correct location because you can no longer see them! It was fun and turned out beautiful but man it was an intense time…
We are finally wrapping the job up today which includes grouting the rest of the joints and laying the shower pan of concrete and rocks. We have come up with a company name thanks to our Alabama sweetheart: Two girls and a trowel! Expect shirts soon 🙂
Tomorrow may be a day of travel or a day of installing windows for an Aussie!?
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Rule #2: Don't Die. 