Halfway tiled

We have 2 kids sick--Ivy and Zari. Ivy stayed home and Zari powered through school, but maybe she shouldn't have. I finally pulled out my thermometer and she had a fever close to 102 this evening. She went to bed early--unusual for her!

My dad and I had a big work day--tiling the shower! We are a bit more than halfway done. I am exhausted. Most of our work has been an hour here, an hour there, but today was all day.

We had to find a creative solution to the area where the mosaic tiles are going. If we just lay the mosaics as-is, they will be inset about 3 mm. So we built guides on top and bottom to be exacly 3 mm deep and then laid a coat of mortar between the guides, smoothing with a wide taping knife. (We had to get creative and glue together popsicle sticks, which when doubled were the perfect thickness!) We pried off the popsicle sticks right away so they wouldn't stay there permanently. By tomorrow, we'll have a flat surface for the mosaics and won't have to mess with excess mortar squeezing all over everything.

Eric and I went with a friend to look at a garage for sale. We think we can fit 2 cars in it, which would really help since we'd have two of us sharing the cost. It's about 7 minutes away on foot and right off the main road that we take heading in and out of Nice.

The house is in utter chaos right now since our tile-cutting station is set up in the kitchen. We have tarps taped to the walls and draped over the furniture to protect from the spray from the tile saw. I'm so eager to finish this project and reclaim our living spaces!