Oh, I'll just touch up a few spots in the grout...

I decided I'd go over to the house on Monday and touch up a few spots in the bathroom and kitchen where grout was noticeably missing. As soon as I bothered to look at the grout closely, I quickly decided that a full regrout was in order. Time to over-DIY it!

I had this really enthusiastic guy teach me how to regrout. Looks easy enough, huh? I gathered all the supplies at Home Depot - a grout saw, some sort of trowel, a grout float, pre-mixed sanded grout, and a grout sponge. The grand total was $35, which I now think was more than reasonable for the difference it's made.

Now I shall show you horrifying 'before' pictures. Prepare to be horrified.

The bathroom floor, right by the door

bathroom floor, entirely too close-up

kitchen counter, the good part!

Kitchen counter right by the sink. Gross. 

I apologize for those nasty pictures. I'm sure you've done nothing to deserve to see such things. Anyway, as you can see, the grout was at worst missing and replaced with filth and at best quite stained.

I broke out my trust grout saw and started to work. By "trusty", I mean the very cheapest one in existence.

It worked pretty well, though, and in an hour I had scraped all of the grout on the bathroom floor. I vacuumed up the grout bits and began to attempt to actually apply new grout. I have very little idea of whether or not I did it correctly, but it mostly seemed to work. I suspect I smeared grout around with my hands more than is actually necessary. 

That's the grout float, used to schmear the grout around haphazardly. At least, that's how I used it. We decided we're getting a new toilet, so I didn't worry too much about getting grout on this one. I hope I don't have too much touch-up to do after we install the new one.

After I smeared grout around enough to suit, I raked up as much as I could then wiped everything down with a damp sponge. The sponging was a little tricky, I must admit. If you apply too much grout at once, it starts to dry and is harder to wipe off. If the sponge is too wet, you make a mess and dilute all of the grout you just carefully applied. Also, there's a lot of sand in sanded grout - go figure. I washed a fair amount down the bathroom sink. I'll let you know when that comes back to haunt me.

Here's the status of the floor after grouting and sponging.

It's so much better even with a haze of grout covering everything!

After I finished the floor, I headed home, made a lasagna, and we got some shiny new phones. Yay! After dinner we pried ourselves away from said shiny phones long enough to scrape and grout the flat surface of the kitchen counter.

And here's the especially gross spot by the sink:

It's not a black hole for rotten food anymore!

Okay, fast forward to this afternoon. I went over to the house and started on the clean-up effort. Apparently I was supposed to wipe the grout off 2 hours after applying it, but I didn't read the directions.

I started with the end of the kitchen counter. The grout film was quite stubborn. I dumped on some vinegar and broke out the scrub brush. Progress! But... also, removal of the new grout from the seams. Oops. It's not too bad, but I will need to touch it up.

I started to notice grout filling in score marks, pits, and other imperfections in the tile. I guess that's just the way it's going to be with old tile. After undoing some of our work in the kitchen, I thought I'd move to the bathroom. The grout there had had a few more hours to set up, and I left the vinegar and scrub brush behind. 

Much better! I made good progress with just water and the scrubby mesh side of a dish cloth. I finished nearly half of the room today, and I'm thrilled with the results. It's starting to look like civilized people could bathe here! 

While I was scrubbing, I was looking really close and noticing spots that were still a tiny bit discolored. Then I came home, looked at the before pictures, and immediately felt amazing. It might not be perfect, but it's such a HUGE difference! 

The grouting adventure is not quite finished. I need to clean the rest of the bathroom floor, repair then clean the kitchen counter, then scrape, grout, and clean the kitchen back splash and the shower surround. 

And now, for dramatic effect, and to make me feel better, a before and after:

Hopefully this picture will provide motivation for the rest of the project!