Tuesday, November 11, 2014

My day - restoring grout

I’m tired—exhausted up to my eyelashes tired working all day in another project in my little cottage… like restoring the dark/dirty tile grout in our master bathroom.  Phew!

When we moved to our little white cottage, the first thing I noticed was the hideous dark grout in the kitchen. White tile and dark grout is an awful combination; the floors looked extra dirty and busy and it was simply hideous. 


So we removed the old grout and re-grouted the entire kitchen and laundry room area.  It was a messy job and it was costly.  But it was totally worth it.  What a huge difference that alone made!  Happy happy.   


The two bathrooms in our little cottage have the same type of yucky grout, but I knew I had to wait on that one.  Now that I’m out of the garden for a while and taking small projects at a time inside the house I decided it was time to work on our master bathroom.  It so needed an update.  

The first thing I wanted to concentrate on was the grout. This time, however, I had to do the restoration myself… 

For my grout I did a little bit of research and discovered a magical product at Home Depot. It's called Polyblend Grout Renew and it comes in a bunch of different colors. I chose 'Bright White' for my project. The entire bottle was only $11.97 and I only used up about half a bottle on the entire bathroom. The only other 'tools' you need are a toothbrush to apply the color and a wet towel to clean excess off edges.



This is how my floors looked like when I started…
ugh...


 Moving on…
You can already see the difference...

 
I had to stop for a pick me up mid-morning/quick lunch...
Kale, pineapples, blueberries and Greek yogurt smoothy


Manuel came by around 11:30am and started working on wiring cables and such…


While I continued working on my tiles.  I'm so excited over how well this is working!


Poor Manuel is having trouble installing my chandi because it didn’t come with the appropriate tools.  Wondering what to do eh?  Hehe... guess he'll have to come up with his own magic to be able to tuck the wires into the ceiling hole and such ;) 


 He ended up having to rewire the whole thing, bless his heart.


I finally finished working on the bathroom tiles by the time Manuel left... here's how it's looking like now.  I say wonderful!


The teal chandi is finally up… I totally love it. 


I’ll be retouching the paint tomorrow morning, including painting the extra piece of chain we added and I will be replacing these chunky light bulbs for something else.  But otherwise, it’s looking beautiful.  


Oh and I did ended up adding a clear coat of Rust-Oleum’s Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2X to my vase…  do use it if you’re painting something like that.  It adds a wonderful shine!


In the midst of our lives, we must find the magic that makes our souls soar...

PS: The Polyblend will stain your hands if not using gloves. Hard to remove.

12 comments:

  1. I love how those bathroom tiles came out! I have the exact ones and the same situation. On the walls they used white grout and I like it, I never realized why I didn't like the floors but now I see clearly why lolol.....I'm going to get a bottle of that magic grout paint and do my floors.....
    and the chandy looks so fun! really a nice touch with your other blues there! good job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hola Cielo, day by day your cottage l'ts more cozy and cute I love your chandy look so beautiful I love the color
    lovely home,
    Blessing
    Isora
    XOX

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the chandelier! You are blest to have found Manuel.
    The flooring looks so fresh and clean!

    ReplyDelete
  4. OMG.. The chandi is to die for and I like the "chunky" white light bulbs. You must tell Manuel that he is becoming quite popular with the women out here. Maybe you need to set him up with his own blog.!! Bless his heart....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh.. by the way. Thanks for the grout info.. gonna start on my hall bathroom this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Everything is looking beautiful! Those floors are positively transformed! And I'm loving that light!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ficou divino, o branco é mesmo fabuloso e sua determinação em transformar o que não gosta é muito incentivador para mim, obrigada!
    http://jasmimfloreseartesanato.blogspot.com.br/

    ReplyDelete
  8. The chandelier looks perfect in your kitchen! It turned out so pretty that I'm seriously tempted to paint some of my chandeliers too. Great job Cielo!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your chandelier is perfect. Beautiful. I have to buy some of that grout renew for my bathrooms. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just love before and after pictures and the ones of your house are my favorites. You are so creative and always make everything look better. Some people have that quality in word or deed, but you have both. I would like to see a current picture taken of the view in the 2nd picture showing the pond now.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow, that product really does wonders! Just look at your floor grout, they look amazing! They don’t look like they were gray just a few hours before. Looking at the result, I can say that this product is highly-recommended. Thanks for sharing, Cielo!

    Nathan Riley @ Steemer Atlanta

    ReplyDelete
  12. O my i nearly popped pot of my skin when I saw the glass in the oven, but truly its amazinly beautiful and the lovely vase turned out wonderful fantastic things with love Janice

    ReplyDelete