Hey friends,

I took a trip up to Northumberland last weekend so there wasn't enough material for a newsletter last week, apologies. My re-up of tiles was then supposed to come on Friday but only arrived today (Tuesday) so I don't have the progress I was aiming to show you, but enough for a newsletter :)

The herringbone wall is now complete. There's a nice variation in tone between the tiles which was in one of the marketing photos but I couldn't tell when looking at them individually. I like it.

My layout worked out as I'd hoped - especially getting the height right to avoid having little triangles on the shelves between the niches. Pleased with that.

I screwed up though. Directly above the niches you can see the gaps widen. As much as I'd like to blame the non-rectified tiles I think it was probably my triangles on the right of the niches which were a bit off. If this were a paid professional job it wouldn't quite be a rip-out but I'd be a bit disappointed.

I think I can make it look better (or worse) by the choice of grout colour so more on that next week.

The other way I could have done these shelves would have been to use solid pieces of marble like the pic below from the net. That might have been simpler but I couldn't have had lights...

...The LED strips and trim worked out well. The top of the niches were the last to go in and are supported by the side tiles.

In the end I only needed one size diamond tile hole bit - 30mm. You can get a whole set on Amazon for a tenner. They may do well for occasional use on ceramic tile but since I only needed the one I opted for an Erbauer, having previously had luck with their larger core drill bits. Still, this one hole took 20 minutes to drill.

To get started you have to hold the drill with two hands and go in at 45 degree angle until you have the beginnings of a groove, then you can straighten up to continue the cut. If you don't it will just wander around and mess up your tile.

If your bit gets clogged/glazed with dust, run it on something soft like brick for a few seconds and that will reveal the diamond again. Bit of water to cool things down helps as well.

The bath is coming along. I've left a 3mm gap at the top of the tile and will fill it with sealant rather than grout which might crack with the movement of the bath with/without water.

Other than the end of the bath, this is what I have left to do. I may possibly, maybe, perhaps have a nearly finished bathroom next week 🤞🤞🤞.

Nature 🌳

The drive up to Northumberland was long but as soon as I passed Darlington, the verges turned green and lush and my friends and I were rewarded with stunning landscapes. Sunlit uplands?

Meanwhile down south we've got a 'false Autumn' due to the drought. The matter of climate change aside, it's been a brilliant and long summer.

I spotted this baby slowworm on the lawn basking in the sun. In case you've not heard of it, it's a legless lizard, quite harmless.

The goldfish have getting busy creating young ones. Just as well as I'm sure the heron has defeated my mesh cover and nabbed a couple of the adults.

The blackberries were delicious. If I get round to it I may soon replace them with a thornless variety as late Autumn/early winter is the time to do it. Any recommendations for the south-east with dry porous soil?

Joe's done well with the veg patch. Lots of courgettes and pumpkins coming through. Maybe I don't need the raised beds after all.

This was pre-hosepipe ban, no need to send fuzz around.

The boy doing his best Prince Philip impression at a local farm.

👋

Hit "reply" if you've got any comments on this week's newsletter – otherwise I'll see you next time. Have an epic week :)

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P.p.s. You can find all previous newsletters here.