Measure, Measure, Measure

Size DOES matter, regardless of what anyone says. Before we ordered the tiles for the walls, our tile man measured and told us how many square meters we would need. It was after this that I convince Ron we really needed to redo the floor also, but it was up to us to do the measurements. We just showed the tile store the measurements and left it to them to figure out the number of boxes we needed. It was only the day before they were delivered that it occurred to me that our baseboards were also tile, not wood. After searching the tile stores' catalog again, I was assured that they did not carry baseboard tile, so called Anna, our liaison translator in a panic. She assured me it would not be a problem. The tile man would cut tiles and make a baseboard. Whew! Well, relief for a matter of minutes only, when it next dawned on me that we would not have enough tile to cover the floor and to cut up for baseboard. The tile order took two weeks. Today, this trauma was reinforced by our tile man. We decided we would get any color tiles from the Practiker store, like the local version of Home Depot. These would be hidden under the cabinets and then the saved tile from there would then be used for baseboard. We traipsed off to the store today, so he could finish up tomorrow. With our grocery trolley in hand and a giant Ikea heavy duty bag, we set off. Miracle upon miracle, Practiker had the identical wall tiles we already had. We needed two more boxes (30 pounds). We needed to pick up three boxes of grout at 5 kilos a box. For those unknowing, one kilo equals 2.2 pounds. The last item on our shopping list was two more boxes of floor tiles. We found a darker color in the same product line as what we bought for the floor already and thought this would make a nicer accent than monotone floor and baseboard. Each box is 20 pounds. I have to say that the employees at Practiker were beyond helpful and friendly from start to finish. We put the two boxes of floor tiles into the shopping trolley on wheels, but we could only fit one box of the wall tiles on top of it. The three boxes of grout and one box of wall tiles had to go into the Ikea bag. It was too heavy for either of us to lift alone. We had to each grab a handle. Now the trick was getting this on two trams and then three blocks home. By the time we reached the first tram and packed everything on, both wheels of the trolley broke off. Kaput! Never to be fixed again. We seriously thought of a taxi at the end of the line, but neither of us brought our phone. When we did get to the end of the first tram line, one of us was going to go home and call a taxi while the other waited. However, I had a better idea. We found someone waiting for the tram, a really nice African man. Explained what happend and he called a taxi for us. All that was left for us was to drag the stuff upstairs on the elevator. I think both of us were thinking heart attack by the time we finished. This is the progress made today. The electric outlets are wired, the walls were prepped, and Sandor put on all of the wall tiles today.

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