Shower Surround of a 1,000 Cuts!

The shelf that exists because of a step up in the foundation makes for a great bookshelf in the bedroom. It will make for a nice place in the shower to store shampoo and the like. But it and the window (4" thick glassblock in a 6" thick wall) have made for a heck of a lot of cuts in the tile. With some better layout, I could have reduced it to, I dunno, 700 cuts, but it's still got a lot of odd bits and pieces compared with the shower surround in the old bathroom.

Progress has been slow this week, because of a pinched nerve or something in my shoulder. Ibuprofen is my friend, but reaching with my right arm is not. But today I forged ahead and installed some more tile. I found that tiling doesn't hurt my arm much more than working at the computer or doing anything else, so what the heck. I'm probably 40% done overall...after I finish the walls, it'll be time to do the floor of the shower and the curb into the bathroom.

I'm making progress, but my slow progress has made me very glad I bought an inexpensive tile saw rather than renting. The tile saw I bought also has a nice adjustable angle attachment. The corner notches for the decorative tiles are beyond the limit of what I can cut with the angle attachment, though, so I'm back to the old method of using a 45' fragment as a brace for the piece I'm cutting the corner off of.