Man Spends All Day Tiling Shower, Then Realizes Mistake—’Is it Noticeable?’

A hardworking dad was all set to share pictures of the bathroom he recently renovated on social media, until he spotted a previously unnoticed mistake.

Renovations are an important part of home ownership for Americans. In 2024, a survey of 1,000 U.S. homeowners conducted by Clever Real Estate found that 94 percent of respondents had taken on a major renovation project in the past five years.

The most popular type of renovation project was a bathroom remodel, with 37 percent of homeowners opting to upgrade. For AJ, a dad who lives with his family in Idaho and chose not to share his full name for this story, it’s a project that has been ongoing for a little over two years.

“The project started with some moldy sub floors that needed to be replaced,” AJ told Newsweek. “It required me taking the tub and toilet out. Then I thought if I moved the toilet over and walled-off the part of the bathroom I could make a walk-in shower for my master bathroom.”

Though AJ was up for the challenge, which ultimately included redoing “around 90 percent of the plumbing,” he admits it was by far the biggest home renovation project he had ever undertaken.

“This was my first solo tile job,” he said. “I helped a guy do a tile shower once before as a side gig, but realistically, this was my first go at it.”

AJ said he didn’t have any help with the project. “My dad has been sitting in a chair outside the shower offering color commentary and opinions and my wife has been telling me to do whatever I want, but that’s about all the help I’ve gotten,” he said.

So, you can imagine the sense of pride AJ felt when the task was completed. It was a sense of accomplishment that inspired him to turn to social media. That was when he spotted the mistake he had made. “I noticed it when I took the picture to post to my Facebook,” AJ said. “My friends and family like updates on progress with the house. As soon as I took it, I noticed it.”

Whether he “noticed” or not was irrelevant though. What AJ wanted to know was whether anyone else could. So, he decided to post a picture of the “mistake” to Reddit under the handle u/RigoMortize, asking: “I spent all day tiling my shower and didn’t notice my mistake till I took the photo. Wife says to leave it alone. Is it noticeable?”

A few eagle-eyed folks on Reddit were able to spot the very slight mistake but were keen to offer reassurance.

“The bottom caddy has the tiles rotated 90 degrees?” one asked. “Took me a few moments to notice, and only because I was explicitly looking for something out of place. I think it’s not that noticeable if you didn’t know something was supposed to be wrong about it.”

Another Reddit user commented: “It won’t be noticeable after putting a bunch of shampoos, conditioners, soaps etc on there.”

A third added: “Call it a design choice instead of a mistake.”

AJ admits he first posted the picture of his minor error because he was “debating tearing it out and fixing it.” He’s made peace with the way things are now though. “The plan currently is to grout it, seal it, see if I can live with it, and if I can’t, tile over it,” he said.

The mistake shouldn’t get in the way of a job well done and a job that became increasingly necessary after they received some news about his 5-year-old son, Griffin. “We found out mid renovation that my youngest son has a rare form of LMNA related muscular dystrophy and will need a wheelchair at some point,” AJ said. “That made us change some aspects of the renovation so it could be his when he needs it.”

To have that shower in place now should be a source of pride to AJ, but he’s already moved on to his next big task: taking Griffin to Disneyland.

The family have already raised $1,000 with a GoFundMe “Make Griffin’s Wish to Hug Mickey at Disney Come True!” and are hoping to hit enough to pay for him to enjoy a trip he will never forget.

“We really want to go while he can still kind of walk on his own,” AJ said. “It’s not easy for him but he can still do most of it.”

Shower caddy tiling aside, after renovating an entire bathroom single handedly, AJ should have every confidence of making his son’s dream a reality.