What's this all a-grout?

I spent the afternoon grouting the bathroom floor. It wasn't too hard and I like the color of grout we picked out. We bought tintable grout and had it colored in the paint department to be mountaintop gray. I'm afraid it is going to be a little lighter than what we wanted, but I think it is pretty anyway.


Here is the before grout picture

This is after the grout has gone in.

A few things to note, dear viewers of my fictional DIY show. First of all, when the kid at Menard's hands you a grout float/sponge combo, pass. Not only do you have the problem of the float not being as stiff as it should be, you have the problem of not being able to wipe up as you go along because once the sponge is wet, it gets future grout wet. It is also impossible to wring out correctly. You are supposed to wipe with a damp sponge, not a sobbing wet sponge!

On second thought, just ignore the kid at Menard's completely. Take the time to do the research, know what you want and don't listen to the "advice" they give you. Or alternately, actually READ the directions on the items to determine what you need. We had a problem with the stuff that we bought because I didn't get enough mortar and I got the wrong trowel type, based on the recommendation of the staff, instead of looking at the directions and thinking for myself!

Finally, don't buy the pre-mixed mortar. The stuff we got we about half dried out and the rest was super hard to work with. We eventually got it down, but it was a fight that involved a broken threshold and a lot of cussing.

Despite having vast and varied talents, after watching my BIL putting in the floor, I've decided that installing floors is not among them. Oh, I could do the grunt work and spread the mortar and install the spacers and put the tiles in but I'm not very good at measuring. I tend to be an estimator (side note:this is why WF's insistence on doing the actual math is so mind boggling to me) so 5 5/8 become "about 5 1/2" and "abouts" don't work in tile.

Now we carefully use the bathroom for another couple of days. Then I'm going to finish the mud and paint (probably Saturday). Hopefully, by Sunday, we'll be ready to put the vanity back in and hang the beautiful medicine cabinet I refinished and the towel bars and then we'll be DONE! While, I can't say I'll ever be a serious bath crasher, I'm fairly impressed with the fact that from demo to done, it has only taken 2 weeks and that involves 4 days where we did absolutely nothing on it and another couple of days when there has only been an hour or two of work, then waiting.