Every time I have a miscarriage or am in a waiting period, I do a house project. I swear this house is never as clean as when I’m frantically cleaning while waiting for results.

Last October I put all my energies into tiling the laundry room wall. The laundry room is between the back door and the kitchen so we, and guests, walk through it several times a day. I painted the cabinets during a previous miscarriage recovery time and it helped brighten up the room (or “the space” as hgtv says) but I wanted to liven it up more. I decided the best way to do this was to tile the wall behind the machines. Keep in mind that I had never tiled anything before. This did not stop me from researching, ordering various tiles and mats and watching tutorials on youtube. There was a small detour on Buzzfeed to find out which brand of pizza sauce I am but all work and no play makes Sarah a bored person.

This is the closest thing I have to a before picture. This was the first possible tile that was vetoed because it reminded me of a Florida pool house. I went through several samples and trips to Home Depot before deciding on black and white tiles.

We had some minor setbacks. I electrocuted my finger, ruined two spatulas forever because I needed them to spread grout and we experienced a bit of flooding. We thought the water hose was connected properly but alas, it was not.
But once the water was cleaned up and my hand stopped zapping, I am so pleased with how it turned out.
I organized inside the cabinets and gave the family a tour of where everything went. There’s a place for everything and everything has its place. Neither of them were taking notes as evidenced by the number of times they ask me “where’s the ________?” and the answer is always “above the washing machine and dryer.”

My Downton Abbey bells hangs on the side.

Sadly the bell did not come with a laundry woman or butler. If it did, I imagine I wouldn’t have some version of this pile on the dryer at any given time.