Carol posted a question about the rock tiles in our new shower that I showed in this post. I thought others of you might be curious about them as well.

I first saw pebbles, or small river rocks, used in a shower floor when I visited Linda in Grand Junction. They looked just like smooth stones sunk into sand and Linda loves them. She has sensitive feet and told me that they felt fine underfoot. When I went tile-hunting, that's what I had in mind. Then I found these:

I left my feet in the shot so you could get a feel for the scale of the rocks. These are river rocks that have been sliced and then glued to a 12" x 12" mesh backing. They are at least 1/4" thick. I liked the fact that they are flat, like tile. I also liked their nearly white coloring.

I knew I wanted the grout to be the color of dirt because it wears better. I probably should not have been surprised that when the rock floor was grouted and sealed, the color of the rocks changed – a lot.

Luis grouted the floor once (and sealed it) and we used the shower. However, as a little time went by, the grout shrank and got lower between the rocks. Luis came back and added more grout. If you do this yourself, remember that grouting something like this is probably a two-step process.

The grout is now not quite level with the tops of the rocks. Standing in the shower with wet, bare feet is fine. In fact, I feel very secure. This is not a slippery floor.

You might have read at the bottom of the post I referred to above that our cat, Emma, had been peeing in the shower. The essential oils didn't work, the (expensive) odor remover/cleaner didn't work. But Cindy posted an excellent suggestion. She said her sister made tents from aluminum foil to keep her cats off of the furniture. So far, this is working – many thanks to Cindy!

FYI – I used heavy duty foil which is a little wider than the normal foil. It's not lovely, but it's not awful either.