A Messy Day with lots of "That's what she said!"

Years from now we will all be married, well maybe everyone except Thomas (I jest, I jest). At some point our wives will look us in the eyes and ask the question that all married women ask their husbands.

“Can we please have the floor tiled?”

She’ll hand over the number of a professional tile layer and start talking about how the carpet, hardwood floor or carpet just isn’t cutting it anymore. We’ll glance at the number on the card and shake our heads. Little does the wife know that no tile layer is needed, her very own husband can do it! As we drive off to Home Depot for the necessary tools and supplies we’ll reflect on December 23rd of 2008.

It was Christmas time and all of the friendlies were home for the holidays. There was Mike, Thomas, the Vevoda brothers and Tyler. Earlier that week while hanging out Jon, the older Vevoda brother, had told us about a fun room his parents were creating. The room’s sole purpose was for T.V., LANs, and laughter. As he painted the pictures in our minds he told us that it needed to be completed before Christmas. The room was nearly ready it just needed to be tiled. Jon was going to attempt it solo, but we instantly knew what had to be done. Gathering knee pads and our spirits we congregated in the room on the day before Christmas Eve. The air that day was chilled and rains came down in showers. The moody weather had no affect on us as we started to plan on how to tile the floor. The sum of our knowledge on laying tile added up to about ten points on a scale of 100. We did not know how to lay tile, but we were determined on figuring it out. We realized that there would be different tasks. Globbers, spreaders, cutters, measurers, and layers were jobs that needed to be filled. We each took a position and were responsible for learning and mastering our newly given skill. Each person was needed and everyone relied on each other. The work went slow and the day had ups and downs. There were power tools that broke and scuffles over how to properly spread a dallop but we persevered. It took about twelve hours and on the morning of Christmas Eve it was complete. The floor had been tiled. We were all dead beat tired but it was worth it. We now were tile layers.

As we worked through that day I thought it was ridiculous how someone would allow some college goofballs with no experience in laying tile to lay their tile. Ridiculous or not, I’m thankful. We gained a skill that day that will travel with us through our lives, right beside the memories of that day. It will also save us a buck or two when our wives want something tiled.