In the kitchen....

In the Kitchen,

The mighty Kitchen,

Lorraina grabbed a knife......

Today I gave up working on the upstairs (because I am still out of primer and drywall compound and don't like going to Lowes) so I went downstairs to work on a project I have been avoiding for months:

Grouting the kitchen backsplash.

Why have I been avoiding this?  This looks like a fun project you say?

Because slate is a pourous tile and the grout grabs to it like it is its business.  It took forever to remove most of the grout from the tiling in the kitchen, so it has taken me months to recooperate.  I figured I needed the patience of a saint to fill in the gaps in the pieces of tile I used for my mosaic.  I was correct.

It took me a while to figure out how to even get the grout in between the stone bits, but it ended up I used a sandwich bag to mix it in, and then cut off a tip of it to use it similar to an icing bag.  This worked pretty well once I got the hang of it and the tricks of keeping it from clogging up (had to periodically remix the baggy to keep the hole from clogging).  Then I would just toss each baggy when all the grout was gone.  This was also cleaner.  

Immediately following each baggy I would wipe the tiles and the grout to secure it in place and also wipe clean the tiles.  

Before- yes it looks better BEFORE!

After.

Now I just need to CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN.  And the nightmare returns.  

Only one more thing (okay maybe three things) remain in the kitchen before it is done!  New hardware on the cabinets is one :).  Retro kitchen is almost complete!