I've tiled my own two bathrooms and my kitchen backsplash, so when my adult daughter's shower sprung a leak at her "new" (circa 1950) home, DH & I came to the rescue. Ripped out the whole tub surround (it gave up without a fight), fixed the plumbing, reinsulated, added backerboard, taped, mudded and commenced to tiling. Got complicated around the tub; being an old steel tub, it has about a 1" flange around the top edges as though it's supposed to bolt to something? We ran the backerboard down to within 1/4th" of that flange, did the tape /mud/dry time thing and then commenced to tiling. When I got to the grout, I must say, the grout was a tad drier than I'd liked for it to be, but I worked quickly and thought I'd done okay. We spaced the bottom row of tile to cover that backerboard/flange gap, which it did okay. Then I left my daughters to finish grouting the normal 1/4th gap around the edge of the tub. I would have used caulk, but since the gap varied some, the girls used the regular grout to finish off that bottom edge and the corners. Are you with me so far? It looked really nice. Now I notice a lot of little tiny cracks in the grout all over and I'm thinking I'll be okay to just smash in another coat of it. (She hasn't used any tile sealer, yet.) EXCEPT.........she called tonite to say the whole bottom row of that grout is soaking wet, coming out in big soggy clumps and some of the tile with it. My thoughts are that she didn't let the tile cure enough before going in and using it, so now we need to pull out all the soggy stuff and redo it from there. So, the questions are: did we handle the backerboard/tile/grout around that flange right? Or is there just enough movement in a steel tub to disallow a grout (vs caulk) to flex. If that makes any sense.......And the second question is: am I on the right track to fix it? How long does it REALLY take for tile to cure enough to take a shower? Please tell me I don't have to take down this whole job.....this is a single mother with a TEENAGE daughter who will just DIE if she doesn't get to shower. Thanks for reading this far............. mm

Weedy, "I'm thinking a "Holmes on Homes" type TV show should be in your future... Might not happen. I don't wear bib overalls, don't have a pierced ear, and after 21 years of being happily married I don't think I'd be any good at flirting with the women-folk. Of course I could always just come to the person's house, keep my mouth shut, have a fine cuppa joe, and do good work. Nahhhh! ;) Homepro, "miss working" I wish! My "to do" list here at home numbers 321 items. I should get most of them cleared up once I get that extra hour of daylight savings time.

My favorites are 2 and 5. 2 because I like the colors, the French old dictionary superimposed, the colibri. 5 because I like the colors and that the whales aren't too obvious at first glance. 1 reminds me too much of circus, 3 is a bit too freaky for everyday, 4 is a bit too much boudoir. Personally, I also really like the conservatory, frozen, and splash. I just see that a hotel in Germany has used it in their showers. Hotel Villa Erlenbad, GermanyLocated in the beautiful Black Forest, a former convent that combines Wilhelminian style with all the modern comforts. 7 individually decorated design rooms offer an experience of luminosity and pure white. Among the few colour notes: the shower room, covered using WET SYSTEM wallpaper with soft or bright colours - which are, nevertheless, the stars of the space. Project: Grossman Architects http://www.villa-erlenbad.de/hotel-villa-erlenbad/ Contact: info@hotel-villa-erlenbad.de

Hi Sochi and Kristin, gorgeous wallpaper projects! I am in correspondence with several Italian fiber glass wallpaper suppliers now and all of them have different waterproofing methods. The main issue I am finding is that the substrate needs to be white in color and smooth. Sochi mentioned the contractor used Schluter KERDI-BOARD but it is orange, so how did you eventually get it white? Krisitin what did your contractor do for substrate? What products were used to waterproof the wall before the application of the glue, wallpaper and sealants? My other concern is that the drywall or cement board (depending on what to use) has to sit on top of my shower pan so I fear it will absorb water is not properly waterproofed. Any guidelines and suggestions will be highly appreciated. Alex