05/25/2026
A project I just completed for the Garvis family in Groveland, FL.
The Garvises were some of my very first customers when I started working in Florida for my family’s business, Frank Hollinger Family Floors. (Now closed.) Over the years that professional relationship evolved into something that feels much more like family friendship or even family itself. They are truly wonderful people.
This bathroom was the final major project needed to officially call the home fully renovated. Like most builds, we started with a tighter budget and a relatively straightforward plan. Originally, this was only supposed to be a tub surround conversion into a walk-in shower but it quickly evolved into a full bathroom remodel with a highend Disney style taste.
I originally wanted to run the wavy wall tile vertically because I thought it would flow better but Dianna had a vision and was set on laying it horizontally the way she imagined it. The results speak for themselves, she was absolutely right.
We also ended up replacing the original floor tile that we had initially planned to keep. I’m very glad they made that decision. The old tile had a matte finish and a similar color palette to the new wall tile, but it was just different enough that the two would have clashed. Instead they chose a plank tile that matched the wood flooring throughout the rest of the house and now the surfaces complement each other perfectly.
To tie everything together we chose a pebble shower floor. I install pebble floors the same way every time, every single stone is handled twice. I remove the stones from the mesh backing and install each one individually by hand. It’s an extremely frustrating process, but the final result always looks dramatically better than installing them in sheets.
At that point we had three different tile surfaces in the bathroom. The walls were always going to be grouted white, but I originally hoped to use the same grout color on both the main floor and the shower floor to tie everything together. In the end, I couldn’t find one color that truly worked well for both so we ended up using three separate grout colors as well.
Overall, the project went very smoothly. It became much larger than originally planned. The only major delay involved the shower controls. Unfortunately, the first control system arrived damaged and we didn’t discover it until installation. The main water supply k**b had snapped completely off the control assembly and the only thing holding it in place was the protective plastic cover. When I removed the cover to verify the hot and cold sides during testing, the k**b came off with it. That setback alone cost us several days.
After the bathroom was completed, we realized we had enough leftover tile to continue the design vertically along the sides of the living room fireplace, so we decided to do that as well. (And no. I’m not that bad at math.) I always add at least 10% waste to tile orders. The reason we had so little waste on this project was because I didn’t center the wall layout like I normally would. Instead, I started from the far left wall and reused every offcut from each corner to begin the next wall section. That allowed all of the gray veining and wave patterns to continue lining up naturally throughout the room. It worked out perfectly.
Anyway, this wraps up my tile work for a little while. I got called out on a fire contract that will keep me away until fall. Once I get back home, I’ll start picking up projects again.
