I promise to take a picture of the tile dilemma tomorrow and get it posted. Hopefully it is fixable and does not involve tearing everything down, purchasing more tile and starting over again.
I’m not sure if I’m understanding where the tile problem is, but if the gap is 1/2" to the ceiling, perhaps the tile man can remove the top few tiles and split the difference by increasing the grout lines between those upper tiles. It won’t look “perfect” but if you divide 1/2" by 3, it’s a 1/6" inch wider grout line. It won’t be too noticeable, if at all. The problem, of course, is how many tiles would have to be destroyed and re-layed in the process.
Crown molding can hide a multitude of problems at the ceiling, and dresses up the room too.
(Don’t ask me how I know that…)
Crown molding is great, but I would be reluctant to use it wet and humid places such as showers. What about tile crown molding, like this:
^^ good idea! Is there a trim tile piece that can act as a crown molding? a quarter round or something? It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
BB and DeniseC, the gap is 1/2". I was going to suggest bejeweling the gap with something cool, but that’s a very tight space. But, if feasible, for sure.
This would require trimming the top tiles a bit, of course, but it means taking off only one layer of tile, and the molding will hide the fact that the top layer is trimmed.
Of course, that makes sense. @BunsenBurner. It’s late here. 
PVC and vinyl trim, painted, look just like wood. Install the tile then notch the trim to fit over it. As DeniseC said, a feature.
I added 3" high crown molding throughout in my master bath, including the shower. Painted it and the whole ceiling it with glossy enamel. I do have a south facing window and also installed one of the LED lite/ fan combos in the shower to ventilate properly, but I do think it adds to the look of the master bath.
<They want the County Building Record. Of course, when I did the original submittal, the desk clerk took the County Building Record and stuck it in the Historical Review folder.
At first they were going to make me go down to the County again and get more copies of the County’s building record>
If there is one thing I am learning from these threads, it is to scan or make five copies of everything. Glad you got it worked out and didn’t have to go back to the county.
Yes, my error. I should have made some extra copies of the County Building Record because everything I own seems to involve some issue with the prior building record.
Would it be possible to insert a liner tile, maybe 2 - 4 rows down from the ceiling, as an accent that would fill the gap? I saw some 1/2" liner/pencil tiles at Lowe’s. There are similar ones in ivory, grey and black as well as this white:
Tile Issue Resolved
I came up with a brilliant idea how to fill the 1/2" gap. We are using metal edging, in a special color, to edge all of the 12 x 24 shower wall tile because there is no bullnose available and it provides a contemporary flair to the shower. I had the tile guy put up a piece of the metal edge and it fit perfectly and filled the gap. It looked good, so that was the solution. Had to rush over to the special tile place and order two more pieces of edging, but he is using what we have to finish the top of the shower walls.
I loaded some pictures of the gap and the metal edging solution
Demise of the Deck
It has been a long day with a tough decision. I had to make the gut wrenching decision to give up on expanding the deck.
I tried to submit the plans for the required back office Landscape Review yesterday (per instructions from Planning Review the day before) and the lady at the submittal desk told me that it was posted in the computer that my Landscape Review could be Over the Counter Review, so I shouldn’t submit the plans because it could take 8 days for back office review. But of course it was too late to get a Landscape Review over the counter yesterday.
Was at the City Building Department by 7:30am this morning, put my name in to wait for a ‘Landscape Review’ over the counter. I waited 2 hours for my name to be called. A new person started looking at the plans and told me that it absolutely had to be submitted for back office review. In addition, I need to prepare a Brush Management Plan with a cleared 35ft zone away from the house and a plan for the remaining 65ft. And, Gee… did you know that you are in an Environmental Sensitive Native Vegetation Zone??? You are not allowed to disturb anything on that slope because it is Native Vegetation. What?? Have you seen the neighbor’s yard??? She kept pulling up fascinating satellite photos that showed the slope vegetation over the years. She told me she can’t do anything about the neighbor (Oh, and how about the neighbor with the swimming pool and basketball court 3 doors down in the $3mil house???)
So, in order to submit for Landscape Review I have to:
Prepare a Brush Management Plan. According to my draftsman this will include full irrigation of the slope and an irrigation plan.
Take pictures of every single plant on the hillside and plot these plants onto the Site Plan or a special Vegetation Plan. Identify each plant to prove that they are non native species. I have jade plants, pepper trees, ice plant and large Eucalyptus trees. None of those are native.
If they determine that I AM Native Vegetation (after a couple of weeks stuck in the back office review) then I am required to do an environmental study on how the THREE HOLES I am digging for the deck might impact the native vegetation.
At this point this is bordering on the absurd. I leave the City with nothing submitted and nothing moved forward at all. I call the draftsman and ask him about all the Brush Management Plan requirements and my head starts swimming.
I call my agent and have a long discussion about whether 6 ft of extended deck is worth all this headache, time and money. She convinces me that we do not need the expanded deck to sell the house. As long as we can stage it in a way that people will see that it is useable in some fashion. Oh, and we have to figure out a way to get a BBQ out there, and we will run a gas line to facilitate a BBQ. She wants me to focus on making the parking pad into a beautiful patio.
In reality, the lower deck that is on the plans is less than 30" above grade so it doesn’t even need a permit. They were going to require all kinds of crazy fire retardant wood and stuff for that deck also.
I then called my general contractor friend who always helps with difficult engineering and structural issues. I rushed over to his house with the plans. I wanted him to give me his best opinion on how much it was going to cost to do the steel posts, welding, special inspections, lumber costs, etc. His opinion is the deck will cost $13,000 minimum and that is BEFORE we do anything with fire retardant issues. This is the cost for upper deck only, does not even include small lower deck.
I had to make the business decision that I need to focus on converting the 800 sq ft because that is where the value will be gained. I called my draftsman and told him to revise all the plans and take out any mention of the decks whatsoever. I have no idea what I have to do to take all these revisions back to the City and start over. I’m going to worry about that another day.
Absolutely exhausted - I need a glass of wine or something!
BTW, the million boxes of IKEA pieces and parts showed up today and we are starting to install the cabinets.
Awesome!!! The tile guy probably pats himself in the back thinking he made a brilliant mistake. 
Another day with Sears Delivery…
I get a really strange call this morning while I am waiting at the City… “This is Sears Outlet, we’ve decided that you need to come in and get a new water hose to fix your problem” What?? what the hey, I think you called the wrong number? But, while I have you on the phone… no one called with a delivery time. Can you please check if my oven is on the truck for delivery today - and please confirm that it has to be delivered BEFORE 4pm??? Yes, I see your oven on the truck. It is scheduled for delivery between 2pm and 4pm
4pm rolls around and no oven delivered. Luckily the guys were running late. I start calling Sears Outlet. They give me another phone number to call. Now it’s 4:20 and I am only one standing at project, I am not happy.
Just as the delivery company finally answers the phone (I was on hold forever), the truck pulls up. The guy says “I was trying to call you for 1/2 hour to tell you we were on our way but stuck in traffic, but you didn’t answer”. Can I see the phone number you have?? Of course, someone had typed my phone nbr wrong on his sheet - the area code was transposed. He kept trying to call area code 916, wherever that is
I now have all appliances. Lesson learned - don’t try to bundle separate purchases into one delivery. They just cannot handle it. You will receive each piece individually over the course of 7 days. Could you imagine if this was a homeowner that was actually gainfully employed somewhere? They would be livid
CB…remind me again…what are you going to do to the front of the house? I know you are taking down the whatever it is…but what will you be doing instead to improve the curb appeal?
I know you really wanted that expanded deck…but what a headache!
I haven’t even started thinking about the front of the house yet. We are keeping the ‘cage’, but we are not going to take it down until the last part of the project because it is providing a little bit of security around the front of the house while we are working with our tools and stuff.
In fact, I just remembered. Haven’t even ordered that new garage door to spruce up the front of the house.