Developing Snobbery

I've done my fare share of DIY but tiling is beyond me. In my book there is nothing worse in a house than wonky tiling as it always seems such a shame when tiles are so perfectly square to then slap them on higeldy piggldy, its a crime! The men who came to start my bathroom, who have now disapered in a puff of smoke spaced the tiles using bits of folded up tile box instead of plastic spacers and they have been cut in the style of a three year old using a pair of blunt scissors, rather than a professional tile cutter. All in all they look hideous and will have to come off.

A buyer would walk in and think "I'll need to completely re-tile this bathroom" just because there is shoddy tiling around the bath. I'm livid. The tiles are cheep but the finish shouldn't be, theres nothing that devalues a house more than bad workmanship and they've made me an extra job and caused me extra expense that I didn't need. I'm not going to mention the drip on the back of the toilet thats running down and discolouring the kitchen ceiling or the fact that the sink has been fixed to the wall too high because thats where the old sinks waste pipe came out, which means the bottom is now resting on a pile of broken tiles, oh I just did.
Sooo the tiler I used to lay the tiles in the kitchen lays tiles for a countrywide coffee chain and I was guessing they didn't take on anybody who was going to do a slap up job but I was still nervous. I'd had someone lay very expensive tiles in a previous house that warrented them but the finish was awful and the jutty out bits tripped up several people who came to visit. Yes I'm OCD about tiles.
My tiler came and he wasn't impressed with the tiles that I'd purchased. I informed him that my partner and I had in our time bought very high end tiles for our home but that I was developing and tiles from such as  Pietra Firma would be rediculous in this type of house which was more suited to Tiles Direct  so he could just go on and lay those lower quality tiles and we'd say no more about it. It was a distatefull exchange and I realised that I had fallen foul of that developers curse 'pretense before profit'
My designer hackles were up and I was on the defensive trying to show him who I really was and how dare he try to make out that I was.....but hold on a minute what was going on here? I'd be in that bathroom showroom buying the most expensive tap they had before I knew it if I wasn't careful and then the penny dropped. Suddenly the fact that I'd bought those particular tiles and was putting them in this particular house signified my bottom rung of the ladder developing status. It was time to have a word with myself. Taking on this kind of project as a women alone was a brave thing to do and I reminded myself that I'd bought those tiles with my hard earned and what a clever girl I'd been to get such a bargin. Developing teaches you a lot more about yourself than just how to master DIY and I had learned an important lesson yet again. The tiling in the kitchen was fabulous, so neat and I was thrilled!