Epoxy Grout and I Are Not Friends

Firstly, (is that a word), I had the pleasure of buying 21 bales of straw in Penrose on Friday on my way down to Cañon. Why 21 bales? Because that's how many the clever fellows at the feed store could get in the truck.

Supposedly, some of this straw is barley straw from what Coors Brewery uses.

This configuration didn't even require tying down. Cool!

These bales were much lighter than our last batch, which required 2 people to lug. When the wind stops blowing like crazy, we'll open these up and spread them out in the dog yard to keep the mud tracking down.

Secondly, I painted the legs of the countertop on Saturday. (Mikey was at the Air Force game.) Despite being a different color than we had agreed on, they look fine, and most importantly, are no long lumber colored.

All that is left to do are the tile and sink. And hook up the gas stove. And put up the range hood. And the wall shelves. Oh joy.

The real reason I went down to see 'Dwight' was to grout the hearth and heat shield in preparation for the stove. Despite the fact that it has been 8 or 9 years since I grouted anything larger than a side table, I assumed it would be like riding a bicycle. And I suppose that is accurate for me. The last time I rode a bicycle, I fell off.

I bought epoxy grout because it never has to be sealed, and it comes in a cute little bucket because of its minimal mixing requirements. I should have done some research beforehand. It was not a pleasant experience. It was very hard to mix, and very, very hard to spread. Maybe if the spreader is a guy, it is not a problem. But I worked up a sweat just trying to get this mess of black, stiff marshmallow fluff textured stuff to go where I wanted it to. With regular cement based grout, you can use more water or a wet sponge to move it to the texture you need. But not this stuff. Never again. The best thing I can say is, "It is finished." Alleluia.

I ran out of epoxy grout for the last bit, and used regular grout. I don't think it is noticeable.

Now it is Mikey's turn to add trim to the edge of the hearth. As Daddy used to say, "Everybody gets a turn."

Did I mention that the whole hearth/heat shield is weird colored because we bought all the tile at the ReStore? We limited ourselves to what we had on hand, and what they had there at the store. YAY! C'est Fini!