Ace-

-tone. Acetone? Good old nail polish remover for dissolving stupid silicone caulk?

Silicone caulk, you are my sworn enemy

Help! Somebody save me! I'm suffocating under a thin film of silicone residue!

Seriously, I started to panic about the caulk bead we put on the sink and went back to the house to work on it. The problem is this. As we were applying, as I work on it now, no matter what I do, it smears. It smears all over the counter in a thin, hazy film. We had to caulk because a couple of our short tiles dipped below level so there was a very small gap. And the thing is, I don't know what to do.

Here's what I've tried: not much. I tried some mild soap and water on an off chance it might work if the caulk hadn't fully cured. Then I considered turpentine, but it's oil-based, and I don't want to stain the granite. I have some caulk remover solvent stuff, but it takes 3 hours to work, and I'm a little scared to leave anything on granite that long. It says it cleans up with soap and water, so I assume it's not oil based, but who knows.

Then I just started scraping with a razor blade. But I couldn't find my window scraper, so I was just scraping with box cutter blades, and now my fingers hurt and have lost the will to live. And anyway, when I get a little blobby and brush it away, guess what? More smears!

Anybody know what I can do? If you tell me that continuing to scrape until the end of time will work, I will gladly do so. I just want to know if this is a futile effort or if I'm gonna get somewhere. Anyone used the solvent on granite?

help?

Whew!

I've been having anxiety dreams about the tile. The night we laid it, I dreamed that they all slid off the counter and I came back to the house to find them all piled on the floor. I also dreamed that they cracked in place.

Last night I dreamed that when I got to show Adam the grout, giant crevices had formed between each tile-- like 2 feet deep and 6 inches wide!

But they're all in place. I'm in between coats of sealer right now. Hopefully that'll work out well too.

Fingers crossed.

Grouting the tile...and my fingernails, and cuticles, and knuckles...

I like Saturday mornings on HGTV. It's one of the few times during the week when they have shows that are at least remotely dedicated to DIY issues more laborious than correcting bad taste or selling homes.

This morning, one show featured a couple who'd had a tiling disaster; more specifically, they'd had a grouting disaster. Great, I thought. I'm grouting the kitchen tile today-- this way, I'll know what not to do.

Oh, I found out what not to do-- and in the process scared myself so shitless of the whole project that I ended up cleaning the haze too quickly and having to regrout the left half of the counters.Also, I went with charcoal grout rather than the midnight black we originally bought. The black grout was the same brand as the first troublesome batch of thinset we used on the backerboard. Since I had no idea whatsoever how to do this or what the stuff was supposed to look or feel like, I decided that the little picture-directions weren't going to cut it for me. I need words. Adam is sick this weekend (please don't have type 1 flu, please don't have type 1 flu, please don't have type 1 flu). So I had to make the executive decision of going with "charcoal" colored grout from Home depot. With directions that use the alphabet. I hope it's not too light.

Otherwise, all went well, I think.
(It's not as light gray as it appears with the camera flash) I also got some touch up painting done. Yay for me. More to do tomorrow.

Our Sunday ups and downs

Literally, figuratively, emotionally. The kitchen counter was probably the project we've most anticipated and most dreaded.

The day at least started out on a good foot; our screws trick worked well with the hardibacker (see previous post) and Adam started laying out the tile while I picked up my awesome laundry room floor slate. When I got back to the house, we started cutting. Instead of buying a tile saw (if we'd known we'd be tiling the laundry floor, too, we might have purchased; lessons learned, I guess), we rented a big one from our neighborhood friendly equipment rental guys; of course, we took advantage of the awesome weekend, 2 days for the price of one, rental special (~$45). I made Adam do all the cutting.

We started out with one of the chipped corner tiles as a test run for our complicated sink corner pieces...And would you believe it? We got it right on the first try!

Emboldened by our shocking and unexpected success, we laid out the rest of the counters and got all the tiles cut. Fit like a glove.

We bought the white mastic that was specially labeled for granite and marble; it also had the added bonus of being advertised as thick and strong enough to build up to 3/4". That way, we could try to work out some of the unevenness that we couldn't solve in the previous several layers of leveling. We mixed it to a pretty loose consistency and started on the left where we had the least amount extra leveling to do. We laid them up to the sink and then wiped them down with a wet rag to get rid of thinset smears. Then we moved into the inside corner of our L-shaped cabinets. This is basically the location that dictated where everything else sat on that side of the sink.

We laid those corner tile and worked to the right; but by the time we got back to the area just left of the inside corner, the first tiles we'd laid were set-- and set too low for the tile we were trying to lay. I don't know if that makes any sense, but the end result is an uneven spot that we couldn't fix. I've talked about the "Oh Shit" moment of a project; this was the, "Not much we can do about it at this point" moment. Most of our joints are pretty smooth, except for this one. I'm not happy about it, but we're not trying to fool anyone into thinking it's solid surface. Obviously that's not an excuse for screwing up, but, as I said, short of tearing up the entire counter top, "not much we can do about it at this point."

Anyway, we put the blue tape on it to keep from sliding; really we put it on there because that's what we've seen other people do ;-). I had nightmares about the tiles sliding off the counter last night and cracking in the middle of surface.

Here's the way we left it Sunday night:


Overall, I'm pretty pleased at this point. We had to trim 2 pieces in the middle of laying the tile-- some grit from the thinset had crept in between the tiles and shifted things a bit. We also have a sink issue that I'll detail later. Maybe someone can help us. Until then, I will revel in the fact that we can grout next weekend and, fingers crossed, move in by the end of February.

We'll start with backer board (and a puppy!)

Since the backer board day was so depressing, I'll start with a picture of a puppy on the porch...



He's 13, so not really a puppy...but he spent the afternoon checking out his new backyard digs and sniffing about the house. When the project got ever more tedious and tragic, I could glance out the back door and see him staring back watching us work. A happy little moment...

Ok, on to the backerboard fiasco. We spent all last weekend getting the plywood on and as level as possible. Weather kept us from getting to the house midweek, so Saturday morning was devoted to backerboard. We cut the boards-- no real problems there. Mixed up the thinset-- it looked a little thick, but we've never done this before; and anyway, the directions on the box were in Rebus puzzle, and I'm a words kind of gal. We slopped it on, laid the boards and went to lunch.



We got back, and the boards didn't really look like they were sticking very well. But we went ahead and screwed them in. Then we started laying out the tile to see where we wanted it all to go. Left of the sink looked good. Everything to the right of the sink acted like it was on a teeter-totter. Nothing was even, the backerboard wasn't sticking any better. It was all wrong. So we removed everything to the right of the sink, scraped off the mastic, bought some thinset with WORD directions, and started all over again with a better, runnier mixture.


This time we got the backerboard in place, threaded the screws part way and used them to raise and lower parts of the board until it was as even as we could get it, and then left the screws only partially in. That way, the thinset could dry right where we needed it without us squishing it around with the screws. When we did finally screw everything down Sunday morning and laid out the tile, everything rocked quite a bit less and we moved on to the scary part of our project.

And the tiling begins

Well, it technically begins tomorrow. Tonight, we have to brave the mountains-- bridges, tunnels and overpasses-- and the forecast of wintry mix (it's like party mix, but with ice...and it makes me angry) to get to the house so we can complete our hardibacker installation and begin tiling. At least we apparently have more than twice the necessary amount of granite (partly due to our own overage calculations, since we're bound to screw up, and partially due to a mixup elsewhere that resulted in our favor ;-) ), so we've got a ton of room for the inevitable problems. And then leftovers for an island.

I've reserved the tile saw from our rental place and I'm ready to do this thing. Hopefully this weekend will be more productive than the last.

Either way, thank god it's Friday...

More kitchen decisions

Well, today Adam is plugging away at the particle board countertops, I think. He's down there working, at any rate, and that's our next project.

We're going to need all the help we can get with the granite tile counters, though, so I've been trolling the internet looking for How-To's and Tips.

I found this Reader's Digest article with a lot of detailed info and pictures. And we've already received some tips from Jennifer at Tiny Old House-- much thanks!!

I'm also working my way through the counters section of the 10k Kitchen Remodel blog. The problem I'm running into here is that we're using 12" square tiles and he used much larger rectangular ones, I think. We're also not bullnosing the edge, but rather will choose wood trim to match the cabinets...

And speaking of cabinets, we're also considering new doors. We currently have the red oak standard stock cabinets you can get at any big box store, with that yellowy finish and raised panel doors. They're just not really my style. And, I would have loved to do dark cherry cabinets, but dark cabs, dark counters and medium to dark floors might be a bit too much, even with our bright yellow walls.

So. When we sanded the upper cabinet bases, we found that they are a nice pinkish color naturally-- the "red" of red oak, I suppose-- so we're choosing to clearcoat. As for doors, I found this company: Advantage Cabinet Doors. At $5.25 a square foot for oak, they are wicked cheap, and they carry the shaker style recessed panel doors that I like. They also come unfinished, so we could use the same thing on them that we use on the base. Anyone out there heard of them or used them before? They're cheap enough that I think I'm willing to give them a shot!

Also, I think we're leaning toward this backsplash from M-Boss:



We just have to decide whether to order it already clearcoated or whether to buy it in the mill finish and go through the coating process ourselves...My understanding is that we'd have to oxidize it fist in lye??? If anyone reading this has done it before, I'd love a recap of your experience, and whether you think it's worth doing it... It's a difference of $6.50 uncoated vs. $11.25 coated per panel, and we need around 10 panels if we just do the backsplash area, another 6 or 8 if we decide to fill in the space behind the stove.

I think the shiny aluminum will be a nice way to bring everything together. It will work with the Silver Mist appliances and reflect the green and gold of the Uba Tuba and yellow of the walls.

I might be getting a little ahead of the game here. We should probably focus on one thing at a time, but sometimes, I just can't help myself!

Focus on the kitchen...

This weekend we begin sanding the house full force. Then once we get the floors out of the way, we'll be in a position to move into the house and stop paying for 2 homes. But after the floors, it'll be full steam ahead on the kitchen. So now that we've made some decisions about how we're handling the floors, we can start planning the remaining aspects of the kitchen.

Here's a reminder of the before, so you'll understand that anything we do will be better than this:

Yep, that's fruit-themed vinyl faux tile on the backsplash. The fridge goes on the far left of this picture. The only change being made to the layout is that our new gas stove, is being installed on the opposite wall from the one you see here. We'll be choosing a yellow color for the walls, and the ceiling fan is a goner-- a new gift for the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. We purchased the appliances during a labor day sale-- Frigidaire silver mist gas range, microwave and top-freezer refrigerator. I don't like the way stainless smudges and we couldn't afford the non-smudgy kind. The dishwasher is a black Frigidaire with all the bells and whistles-- I haven't lived in a place with a dishwasher since I was 9 years old, so this was the one appliance we wanted to splurge on. Someday, I'll upgrade to drawer style...mmm...Oh, and lighting decisions come a bit later, when we decide if we have room for an island. We're gonna live in the kitchen for a bit before we make that choice.

So anyway, we gutted the thing, replaced the walls and here's where we stand now.

Cabinets are at least partially in place. We will be adding another upper cabinet to the far right so that we can attach the microwave. We have an old lower cabinet component that we won't be using, so I guess we'll adjust that to fit. We started sanding the uppers so we could refinish, and ended up deciding that they really are a pretty color naturally, so we'll just clear-coat them and leave as is. I don't like the door style, but they're pretty solid, so I may just learn to live with them for the time-being.

We still need to replace the countertop base; it's currently particle board, which will swell under the tile. Sink is graphite ($235 at Lowes), and faucet is in oil-rubbed bronze (which I happily found on Overstock for $65!!). The surface is going to be Uba Tuba granite tile (also part of the Labor Day sale purchase-- at 20% off they were about $7.70/ft2), and we'll do a wood trim edge-- I think we should get a piece of trim that matches the cabinets. Adam's not sold on the idea.

As for the backsplash, I had wanted to use yellow/beige 4 inch translucent glass tiles. They, however, cost an arm and a leg. Then we discovered metallic glazed tiles in bronze. They cost the other arm and leg. I suggested bead board painted the same color as the walls (a light yellow, eventually) but with a slightly shinier top coat, and that one was nixed right out of the gate. "Too country," apparently. We both think a tumbled stone look would look good, but I think that would be a little boring-- predictable.

My newest suggestion is faux tin ceiling tiles. They're moderately priced; somewhere between nice ceramic or stone tiles and glass at ~$18 per 18X24" tile. if nothing else, these just seem so much easier to install than tile, especially with the goofy, uneven masonry/concrete wall that this stuff is going on top of.


At any rate, neither of us has outright nixed this idea, so it still has a fighting chance.

Then again, I do have a knack for talking myself out of Brilliant Ideas all the time.