Different Shades of Blue

The tiler arrived bright and early this morning and immediately set to removing the old glass tiles. He was not at all optimistic as to how easily they would come off, and anticipated quite a bit of collateral damage to the plaster beneath.
However, it would appear that when I put those tiles up ten years ago, I either didn’t use a very good adhesive, or I didn’t use as much as I should have, as the old tiles actually came off with remarkable ease. No breakages and no big chunks of plaster detached from the wall. I must confess, there was a tiny part of me that was a little upset that I’d not put them up more securely all those years ago!!
The good news though was that he was able to start putting up the new tiles nearly straight away once the walls had been primed. And that’s what the blue is in the picture. The colour is merely so you can see where it’s been applied, as the important bit is that it contains little granules which will help the tile adhesive bond to the wall as well as the tiles. Unlike the tiles I put up, the new ones will not come off the wall anywhere near as easily. Fortunately, we’re not planning on changing them any time soon! The slight shock was that the window sill had disappeared entirely! Apparently the original sill was just less than one tile high off the worktop, so he will construct a new, slightly higher one to avoid lots of very thin cuts.
I’m sure the job might have been further on were it not for the discovery that the tiler and I had mutual passions for old cars, motorsport and rock music. Probably spent at least an hour off and on during the day, just reminiscing about cars we’d owned, gigs we’d been to and motorsport events we’d attended or taken part in. Always nice to be able to chat to a fellow enthusiast!