Kitchen Floor Complete

After far too long, the kitchen floor is finally done. Jessica swept the floor first, then I wiped it down with a sponge and water. After the slate was completely dry, I applied a simple penetrating grout/tile sealer. Then I mowed the front yard. The slate had completely absorbed the sealer after I finished mowing, so I went ahead and applied the final product, a "stone enhancer/sealer". This product brings out the colors in the stone, makes it darker, and gives it a slight glossy look (at least until it gets dirty). Have a look-see:






We're going to avoid walking on it tomorrow; hopefully it'll be dry and pedestrian-friendly by Saturday. It does feel nice to have this done, but now I must move on to other tasks which, I'm afraid, will seem very foreign to me, as I've done almost nothing but lay tile/slate since March.

Slate-Grouting Progress

I've slowly been chipping away at the time-consuming project that is grouting the slate in the kitchen. It's quite an ordeal, but I've finally got the process memorized and streamlined. Here's what I've been doing:

1. Use a sponge and a bucket of water to clean off the slate to be grouted.
2. Empty the bucket of its now-dirty water, refill it, and repeat step 1.
3. Repeat step 2.
4. Wait 15 minutes or so for the slate to dry.
5. Apply a coat of sealer.
6. Wait 15 minutes or so for slate to absorb the sealer.
7. Apply another coat of sealer.
8. Wait 30 minutes or so for slate to absorb the sealer.
9. Mix grout.
10. Use a grout float to scoop a tiny bit of grout out of the bucket.
11. Using the grout float, squish the grout into the grout joints a few inches at a time.
12. After grouting about 4 slates' worth of grout joints, stop to clean grout off of slate surface.
13. Fill a 5-gallon bucket with water, use a sponge to clean off excess grout, rinsing the sponge every minute or so.
14. Empty the bucket of its now-dirty water, rinse the sponge out, and refill the bucket.
15. Sponge off slate two or three more times to ensure removal of grout "haze".
16. Repeat steps 10-15 until knee- and back-ache become debilitating.

It's painstaking, but it's working well, and I'm probably about 75% done. I've done a little illustration to show some of what I've grouted so far. The green lines in the picture represent grout lines that are done (the lines hidden on the left continue all the way to the door and into that corner):


(And of course there's the part under the stove and dishwasher that I did a few weeks ago.)

After it's all grouted, I'll wipe it down a couple more times, apply one more coat of sealer, then apply a final coat of "Stone Enhancer/Sealer". We'll see how that holds up; I may end up sealing it again a few weeks after that.

Not a whole lot more has been going on lately. After the floor is done, I'll move onto projects like installing quarter-round, cleaning/organizing the garage, and installing thresholds for the two kitchen doorways.

Refrigerator

We finally had the refrigerator delivered today. It was put in place and hooked up with little fuss. I wasn't there when Jessica picked it out, so it was the first time I'd seen it in person. It's gargantuan! I love it.

When we were living at the duplex, I was always whining about the amount of space in the fridge. I foresee no such problem with this one. The refrigerator is so imposing, in fact, that it changes the feel of the kitchen dramatically. Jessica says that once we get a table and chairs in the kitchen, the fridge won't seem so strangely oversized. Either way, it won't bother me; I look forward to going spelunking for milk each morning. ;-)

Working on Sunday

A travesty, I know, but I think it was all God-pleasing work, and we got quite a bit accomplished.

After church, I made a quick trip to Lowe's for more cabinet handles. I bought all they had (26), and we're still about 5 short. I then started cleaning thinset from the grout lines between slate tiles. It was rather tedious; there was a lot to clean out because I had been a little sloppy when laying the slate. I also used a cold chisel to alleviate any extreme instances of unevenness between adjacent tiles. Behold, the tools of the trade:


I covered the whole floor (minus what I'd already grouted) and vacuumed thoroughly afterward. Now I'm prepared to dive into some serious grouting next week.

While I was doing this, Jessica was painting quarter-round and repainting (for a total of four coats of Behr Polar Bear 1875 semi-gloss) cabinet doors:


It's a dangerous thing not knowing what you want to do next; it's at these times that you receive assignments. My assignment was to install the overhead bathroom light fixture that we bought on Friday (Our regular lighting store was having a huge sale, and we got a great light for $7.00!). I'd never installed a light fixture before, so this one took me about two hours:


Finally, not more than 30 minutes ago, Jessica installed all the cabinet handles we had. It looks really nice, and does a lot to give the kitchen a finished look.



P.S. I tried shooting the inside of the front door again. This is the best I came up with, but I think it's a little better than the first ones I took:

Quarter-round

But first...

Last week, Jessica decided to stain the inside of the front door. We had been planning on painting it because there was some damage on the inside from when the holes for the door hardware were cut. I had repaired the damage with some wood putty, but we were afraid it would be clearly visible through stain. But Jessica tested out a little stain on the damaged part and it looked okay, so she went ahead and stained the whole thing. It turned out very nicely, and the hardened wood putty took the stain very well, so you can hardly even tell it's there at all. To put it mildly, Jessica was extremely pleased with the way it turned out. (My pictures, though, didn't turn out so well; I definitely did something wrong when I took them.)



Now, I can't imagine having it painted; it looks fantastic. More kudos to Jessica! (Maybe I'll try to take a better picture and post it later.)


Friday evening, we went to Lowe's and bought about 170 feet of quarter-round, then we brought it home and painted it all. It wasn't fun.

Saturday, Mom-Mom and Papa came down at around 9:00, and work began very soon. Jessica decided that she and Papa could put in quarter-round while I worked on the kitchen floor. She wants the refrigerator to be put in as soon as possible, so we decided I should just grout the part of the floor on which it will reside. Here's that part of the floor after a pre-grout sealing:


Grouting went well, and after I apply a final coat (or two) of sealant to it in a couple of days, we'll be able to have our refrigerator delivered.


Jessica, Papa, and Mom-Mom worked hard on putting in quarter-round. They finished installation in the living room, the hallway, and the brown room.



Today, Jessica intends to paint over the filled nail-holes. I, of course, shall be continuing work on the kitchen floor. I'll likely be cleaning out grout lines in preparation for much more grouting this coming week.