Things I wish I'd known previously about tiles

1. It's a pain to get the thin-set on the walls without holes and vacations, because the thin-set gerbles up under the notched trowel and pulls off the wall.
This can be minimized by keeping lots of cement in the area the trowel is about to run over.
A: put lots of thin-set on the trowel itself, up against the notches
B: pull the trowel at less than 45 degrees so it tends to force the cement through the notches
C: advance into a low spot, smoosh the trowel almost to the wall to adhere the cement on the trowel to the wall, lift back to the 45 degree angle, advance the trowel. Makes for a rocky-looking track but at least it's a full fill.

2. I'm trying, AGAIN, to use caulk as well as cement: caulk between the tiles as sealer, since there's no room for grout. It works better to cut the caulk gun tip with a notch, so it runs along the edge of the tile without slipping off either direction.