Vinegar and a Toothbrush

My BYU friend Michelle just emailed me to (1) comment on my last post and (2) mention that I hadn't posted for awhile.

My excuse: I've been putting the finishing on our newly installed tile floor. Finishing touches is the glamorous description for scrubbing off grout haze, a thin layer of grout that inevitably coats tile during the grouting process.

Michelle informed me that our other BYU friend's latest posts are also about their latest home improvement project. I guess that means I don't have an excuse. So, pictures are coming but over the last several weekends Garry and I (well, mainly Garry) have been installing tile in our kitchen and adjoining powder room. It is almost done. (Thanks, Reed and Heather!)

While Garry has done the lion share of the labor, I have helped in three significant ways:

(1) Watching the kids: it is not an easy task to prevent them from damaging your kitchen appliances when they are sitting in your living room.

(2) Numerous trips to home improvement stores: Garry has had his share too but this is one of the few areas I could actually help with the kids. From picking out tile and grout samples, I can't tell you how many times I've seen Lowe's Halloween display (the highlight for the kids).

(3) Scrubbing grout haze off the tile: Could there be anything more fun than getting all that haze off the tile? After reading lots of posts on the subject and trying several approaches myself, I have found that undiluted vinegar applied with a toothbrush gets it all off pretty quickly.

And, that is what I spent my time doing yesterday. The project is almost done and we are very happy with the results. It's been a long time since we've done a major home improvement project--and even longer that we've talked about this project. Thank you, Garry!!!