The Beginning of the Tiles
This morning we bounced up bright and early and started doing the ceiling tiles. This moment has been a long time coming and I’m so tickled with how they’re turning out. The process is pretty straightforward. We’re using a stage 1 ceramic tile mastic called OmniGrip. Trowel it on to a thickness of about 1/8 inch, then notch lightly and place the tile. After I set the tile in, I use a wall-paper seam roller to roll down the flat parts and to really work the seams over. I’m using a 2″ putty knife and a slightly damp rag to clean up mastic that oozes out between the tiles. It’s pretty straight-forward, but definitely a workout for the arms. Each of the tiles is 18″ square and there will be 69 of them (or parts of 69 of them) placed all-in-all.
Jason is rocking at his end of things and this is decidedly a two-person job. He gets the mastic all over the trowel and keeps the putty knife and roller clean and makes sure they’re within reach when I need them. He pretty much just reads my mind and hands me shit when I need it. He’s also responsible for obsessing over the direction in which each tile is placed. Also, he innovated the fucking brilliant idea of cutting the tiles with the rotary cutter. Complete genius.
We placed the first 18 tiles before lunch, but then pooped out and decided that the afternoon was really meant for catching up on laundry and cleaning up the garden, which will be another post all its own. Here are some pictures of the morning’s fun. Cheers.
