Reality hgTV!

Reality shows are all the same, right? Following a formula that pits the most outrageous opposites together and pushing their buttons. Well, sames goes for home renovating shows. In the days before such shows spawned their own tv channels geared towards every possible niche market, I found them actually useful sources of DIY knowledge. These days, the hosts have to look sexy, be witty before creating anything of interest (which someone else does for them). Nevertheless, there are some projects that are pretty basic in terms of procedure where the outcome lies solely with the skill level of the worker. Watch it as many times as you want, it's the same, but wait til you try your hand at it! Laying tile could be one of those. Slather on the mortar. Lay down the tile in some uniform fashion, right? Let set and put in the grout. Then, clean up. Easy peasy? Well, there'rs plenty to go wrong including spacing, evenness of the mortar, etc... Yet another challenge is vertical tiles as in bathroom walls.

Well, reality tv came home when there was a slow leak behind the tile in the wall that made its presence known on the ceiling one floor below. Ok, so it didn't come to *my* home, but close enough. Not as easy to do as it requires precise hands so that the tile is spaced properly, and that all the tiles lay evenly flat. Who wants uneven tiles? The grout part was easy though. =D Obviously, this can't be done all in one day but today was the culmination of the lesson as it is finally finished! Hooray!