The grout went up last Wednesday, a scary job for an amateur doing it for the first time, but fear of ruining a perfect tile job forces one to be patient and exact. It took 3 hours with Lisa doing the harder, detailed work of sponging away the excess grout and making the grout lines look perfect, and it really turned out that way. By Sunday, a week after starting the project, the trim was back up, the switch covers screwed back on, and the sealer applied.

We couldn’t have asked for anything nicer and more professional looking, I think:

The whole project only cost $468, and that included $231 for the tile, $103 for the wet saw rental, and the rest in tools and supplies (beer and food, not included). There are more pictures of the whole process here.

It’s always refreshing to complete a DIY project like this. Just not again, ever.

Oh, and Lisa and I continued with the backsplash, pulling all the spacers and mastic boogers yesterday, and completing the (dreaded) grouting tonight. I was a basket case, considering I’d never grouted a thing in my life. With me on the float and Lisa on sponge duty, we completed the grouting in about 3 hours. The result? It looks awesome! I really should quit worrying so much, Lisa was calm and composed, not a worry at all. All that remains is replacing the trim and outlet covers tomorrow, another sealer application in a few days, and pictures to prove that anyone can put in their own backsplash.

It was not easy, a bunch of tile amateurs (me, Lisa, Darrell, and Shari) putting it up, but so far the results are stunning. Lisa and I decided on a nice natural stone, 4″ x 4″ tumbled Troy, with marble accents throughout. Twelve exhausting hours it took us to cover around 41 sq. ft. Grouting is next, probably Tuesday. Stay tuned.

I’m not sure why I’m still up, I’m absolutely exhausted, it was a busy day — we’re putting a fresh coat of paint in the garage and arranging things, getting rid of stuff we no longer need, just one of the many items on our 2010 list we’ll be able to strike off soon. Next week will be tiling the backsplash, and in about 8 weeks, contracting out for two fully remodelled bathrooms. Add to that my pending GMAT exam, and Lisa’s current mediation course, we’re both super busy!

It’s nights like this we live for, though, so so relaxing. I can’t stand the heat and the lack of rain sucks, but it’s really been a great summer so far.

This year we planted tomato, broccoli, leeks, peppers, jalapenos, and squash.

Lisa reminded me we also have an herb garden growing, started a few weeks ago: cilantro, flat Italian parsley, sweet basil, Thai basil, Greek oregano, and German thyme.

We think the results are amazing:

Pottery Barn’s Markham Console is a very similar workbench, although ours is authentic and not a reproduction. Talk about functional art. We thought it’d be fun to steal Pottery Barn’s idea, though:

It took four days of work, with 90% of our time spent on the concrete preparation and the rest on the stain and topcoat application, but it was worth it!

You can see a photo summary of the project here.

There was enough downtime while waiting for things to dry that we knocked off another project, painting the exterior of the sun room.

(before)

(after)

In all, lots of hard, hard work. But the results… wow!

We did some heavy work in the back yard and ended up with a bunch of bags full of trimmings that we needed to unload. The Convenience Center is certainly convenient. You pay your $3.60, back your vehicle up to a concrete trough, and dump whatever garbage you need to get rid of. A tractor pushes all the trash to the west end of the center where it drops into waiting tractor-trailers, which then haul it all away to the real dump, where I guess is somewhere west of Albuquerque. Not sure.

Anyhow, it’s all quite exciting, and run in a very professional manner. I’m impressed.

We weren’t able to get all the trimmings hauled away today, Scratchy can only carry so much. We’ll dump the rest next weekend along with a pile of carpet we’ll be removing from the sun room later this week, as we decided to strip down to bare concrete and acid stain it. YES!

Before:

After: