I began the day sealing all the tiles I bought last night and hoofed into the house...22 small squares, 11 small rectangles and 8 large squares. I would like to reiterate that I chose all these tiles myself, loaded the tiles and unloaded them myself from the car into the house. And I did this with 6 titanium screws and rods in my back so people who whine and say they can't do things really bugs me. You can do damn near anything if you decide that you can.
I made an error today and got sloppy with the sealant and it dripped onto the floor. There is nothing you can do then. It just makes marks and spots that you can't get off. I think there is a way to remove sealer but I don't know how so I need to figure that out. And from now on be more careful with my roller.
But I also had a success today. There are often really odd cuts that are required and today we faced the KING of all odd cuts. I decided to make a paper cutout of what we needed and then use that to draw a line on the piece like a template. It worked brilliantly and Jym should listen to me more often because my ideas rock.
Jym came into the house and realized that his tape measure and notepad had become hopelessly mortared together in the pocket of his man apron that he wears to cut tile (another downside of cutting tile and laying tile at the same time.) He must have gotten a giant blob of mortar in the pocket as he leaned over when he was troweling but we managed to chisel it all off and get it working again.
After everything was sealed I got down on the floor and started to grout. I like to grout in my underwear since it gets all over everything and it doesn't come out. I learned that lesson the first week when my clothing was ruined as was my skin. (This is also why there are no photos of me grouting. LOL.) Now I grout and then shower before doing any mortar. If you let the grout on your skin too long you are screwed. It isn't like the mortar which comes up pretty easily even after its dried.
So I gave some hard thought to how we should progress. We had to finish the pantry but if we moved the stove it would either block the pantry or the refrigerator and it would allow such a narrow area to work in. I know this is a trigger for Jym. He literally kicked the refrigerator when it was "in his way" when we were doing that part of the kitchen last week and it was literally NOT in his way. So I knew that the stove would absolutely be in his way and I did not want to deal with that so I suggested I grout the area we tiled yesterday while he cut the pieces for the pantry and the doorway area and then we could mix the mortar and lay those pieces and THEN move the stove so it would not be in the way. Jym insisted it would NOT be in his way but I pointed out that he is wrong and I was not dealing with his irrational freak out when that happened.
So I grouted while Jym cut the pantry pieces. Jym was upset that he didn't get to grout. Yes I know. WTF? He says he LIKES to grout. I cannot tell you how much I HATE grout. I have no idea what he likes about it but he has done barely any of it so maybe that is why he likes it. I told him that there will be plenty more opportunities for him to enjoy the excitement that IS grouting. But today the fun was all mine. LOL
It worked out pretty well and I finished grouting and Jym cutting and then we started to lay grout in there at around 3. He requested sandwiches first at 2:30. I hate not having my stove. We have had to eat breakfast from the Asian donut place down the road and although TASTY it is NOT healthy and I can't cook my lunches or my dinners and I am losing my mind. We mixed the mortar after lunch and began laying down the cut pieces in the pantry and doorways.
Jym pointed out as we were working that he is seeing a LOT of baby spiders THEN says he thinks that they are black widow babies!! OMG. NO. I hate spiders and they are everywhere. Its like they love the tile. I think they are being displaced as we rip everything up and they come out of the woodwork (literally).
Stepping on a spacer is like stepping on a lego. I will just say that. In case I have not before. I pointed out that I don't have kids so I can't really be SURE about the lego comparison. Jym then said if we had kids I would have to worry about the 8 sided dice. I pointed out that even WITHOUT children I have to worry about that. LOL
I was telling Jym I found a tile that I love that has a heart on it. I wanted to put it someplace where we will look at it every day. He replied "well then its settled. It goes on top of the TV" LOL. We eventually decided to put it in the doorway to the laundry room from the kitchen which is how we enter and exit the house so we will always see it and remind us to carry love with us.
Next came the big stove move. We used the giant cardboard box from my new pantry shelf and then used the hand truck. I was not liking this at all. Jym was pulling it way back and I thought it was going to fall on him and I had no idea what he was doing. He said he had it under control but I was not at all certain. We finally got it up onto the tile and down onto the cardboard. That was a relief. Then I saw the little warning sticker on the back saying to only hand truck it from the SIDE. Ugh. I am hoping we didn't do any damage. I guess we will know when we can plug it in again.
We then finished the rest of the kitchen and finally the few cut pieces around the edge. This went relatively smoothly until we laid down one of the rectangle pieces and Jym was pushing on it and we heard a pop. I didn't see anything at first so I thought it was maybe an air bubble but later I noticed it had a hairline fracture across it. I am going to try to grout it and see if it helps to stabilize it. I really like that tile. Then right below it we put a tile in that felt fat and wouldn't lay right. We should have pulled it up but it was a big rectangle and a good one and we didn't want to ruin it but after it set I could tell there must be a gap underneath. It sounds hollow on the corner area. I think there must have been a stone or something under it and so it won't lay down. Not much we can do now. Next time we need to try to lift it and fix it I think.
As we were finishing mortar it began to rain outside and Jym was mad he was missing the storm. I made him lay 3 more tiles, including the heart tile, to finish off the mortar in the bucket. Right as he finished and headed outside the thunder began to crack. Jym was rinsing out the bucket when a huge bolt of lighting came cracking to the ground. And BOOM we lost power. I was on the floor at the time trying to wipe up leftover mortar. We were then without power for a good hour.
I plodded about the house in the silence and darkness. Thankfully there was still a small amount of light through the windows. I was carrying around the razor on the stick that you use to scrape the blobs off the floor and also a broom to sweep them up and I was trying to multitask and scratched my face with the razor as it slid over my cheek as I was trying to sweep. I am clearly not someone who would survive the zombie Apocalypse. I was then so out of sorts and Jym said I should shower and try to get the hot water before it cools off. So we tried to both shower quickly before the hot water ran out.
I then called the power company as the no AC was beginning to be a struggle and they said the estimated repair time was 10pm. I was literally screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as the power came back on! So yay Duke energy. Way ahead of schedule.
Jym then went to Manny's to get a to go order. Man do they feed you but it was NOT exactly diet food but all we could get. I guess at least it wasn't fast food and that Tbone made Jym really happy although going to get it did not make him happy. He said he thought I would go get it. I pointed out that I had on less clothes. He reached down and unbuttoned his pants and let them fall onto the floor. Ha ha. Very funny. Now go get us food.
Jym was getting excited at the thought of how close he thought we were to finishing and said "All we have left is the laundry room and hallway!" I replied..."And the guest bathroom...remember?" (clearly he did not) and I then said how we were buying a new toilet. He said "Oh! Can we get one of those Japanese toilets with the heated seats and the water that squirts up on your bum and those little anime characters that pop out and sing for you when you poop??!" LOL. He then began singing the celebratory poop song that these characters might be singing.
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