The one where I make a mess of my kitchen tiles.

I’d been putting off grouting the kitchen tiles, because I knew that it was a messy job.  But last week, I decided that it would be the perfect project to keep my busy while Jeff was away for work.  As if being at home on my own with my two boys wasn’t enough… duh.  Here’s how the day went:   

9:00 – Started as soon as the boys headed out to school… mixed up the grout and started smearing it into all of the joints.

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9:30 – Jack’s teacher calls me to pick him up because he is coughing up a lung.

10:00 – Back at it… start sponging… since I’m using dark grey grout, it makes a huge mess, and I have a mini panic attack.

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11:00 – Time to pick up Beckett and make lunch.

12:00 – Start sponging again… uh oh… this grout is already pretty dry… resume sponging double time to try keep the grout damp.

12:30 – Have to take boys to piano lessons.

2:30 – Shit!!!  grout is completely dry, but I manage to sponge one small section SUPER AGGRESSIVELY and it turns out fine.  The rest of the wall still has grout glommed on to every joint and smeared over every tile. 

3:00 – Time to pick up the cousins from school and take all 4 boys to swimming lessons… leave the house feeling pretty much defeated.  Am I ever going to finish this job???

5:30 – Stop at my Mom & Dad’s to whine and complain get advice on how to fix the mess I’ve made of this wall.

6:00 – Longstringofswearwords!!!  The grout is DRY.  Like cement.  The only solution is to scrape every joint with this tool, and sponge the heck out of the tiles as I go.  Blurg.

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10:30 – Clean up is a bitch because of the fine dust that accumulated from all of my scraping… but at least I’m FINISHED!

… and I don’t think anyone will be able to tell what a disaster this was! 

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Tiling: The tricky cuts.

If you’ve ever tried to cut small pieces out of a tile, you’ll know how amazing this is:

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My Dad was able to fit those tricky pieces perfectly!  Crazy, right?  I didn’t even think it would be possible.  Here’s another one:

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I SWEAR I’m going to get the grouting finished this week.  Promise. 

Back at it

A little bit of kitchen progress to report today… my Dad wired up my new light!  I love it!  (Jeff says he will ‘probably get used to it.’)DSCN5689

Now we can get the tiling finished!