As some of you know, Dean had some minor surgery on Monday. He had some scar tissue in his bladder (from last year's surgery) that was causing concern. Monday morning we arrived at the Ambulatory Surgery center at UMC at 6am. He was in surgery at 7:37am, recovery room at 8:25am, and on our way home at 10am! They originally said that they would keep him over night, but decided that he could home. He will have a urinary catheter until Thursday, then they will remove that. Otherwise, activity as tolerated and no heavy lifting for two weeks. The last surgery was concerning because of the excessive bleeding that he had. This time he does have blood in his urine, though it seems to be improving today. We're hoping that everything will heal quickly, and as expected, so that he won't have to go through this again. He's a great patient, here at home though!
Even though Dean hasn't been able to help, we were in need of getting that tile job done in the bathroom! Dean sealed the tiles for me, when I was at work this past weekend. The next step is the grouting of the tiles. He put two coats of sealer on them, and I'm glad he did! I think too much grout would have stuck to the tiles with only one coat. The label says that I can use the same sealer with the grout - and that project will be the next step. Yesterday afternoon I mixed up the grout and got to work. The books we have say that the grout should be the consistancy of peanut butter. We used sanded grout due to the wider grout lines. I've never grouted this large of an area, so I worked in about 2-3 sq foot sections. The challenge is that you have to remove the excess before it dries on there - but you don't want to mess with it too soon. When we did the slate hearth, in Illinois, I cut my fingers on the edge of the tiles - filing the grout in by hand. Not this time! While the grout was pretty stiff, it worked well using a float to apply it. Right away I was able to see how it was going to look - and loved it!
The color of grout we used is called "Mushroom". It was a little darker when it was wet, lighter now that it has dried. I like the effect and am glad that we did the diagonal pattern, it's so much more dramatic that way! While I should have gone over the floor last evening, again, I did put that off until today. I'm pleased with the results and am looking forward to the next step - sealing the grout and another coat of sealer on the tiles. We have guests coming to spend the night on Saturday, so we're working with a deadline this time. My guess is that we will be able to put the new toilet in the bathroom on Friday evening. I'm including a picture of what the floor looked like before we started tiling (brick patterned linoleum), and how it looks right now (pretty new quarry tiles). You can refer back to the previous posts to see the actual tiling in process!
As some of you know, Dean had some minor surgery on Monday. He had some scar tissue in his bladder (from last year's surgery) that was causing concern. Monday morning we arrived at the Ambulatory Surgery center at UMC at 6am. He was in surgery at 7:37am, recovery room at 8:25am, and on our way home at 10am! They originally said that they would keep him over night, but decided that he could home. He will have a urinary catheter until Thursday, then they will remove that. Otherwise, activity as tolerated and no heavy lifting for two weeks. The last surgery was concerning because of the excessive bleeding that he had. This time he does have blood in his urine, though it seems to be improving today. We're hoping that everything will heal quickly, and as expected, so that he won't have to go through this again. He's a great patient, here at home though!
Even though Dean hasn't been able to help, we were in need of getting that tile job done in the bathroom! Dean sealed the tiles for me, when I was at work this past weekend. The next step is the grouting of the tiles. He put two coats of sealer on them, and I'm glad he did! I think too much grout would have stuck to the tiles with only one coat. The label says that I can use the same sealer with the grout - and that project will be the next step. Yesterday afternoon I mixed up the grout and got to work. The books we have say that the grout should be the consistancy of peanut butter. We used sanded grout due to the wider grout lines. I've never grouted this large of an area, so I worked in about 2-3 sq foot sections. The challenge is that you have to remove the excess before it dries on there - but you don't want to mess with it too soon. When we did the slate hearth, in Illinois, I cut my fingers on the edge of the tiles - filing the grout in by hand. Not this time! While the grout was pretty stiff, it worked well using a float to apply it. Right away I was able to see how it was going to look - and loved it! 
The color of grout we used is called "Mushroom". It was a little darker when it was wet, lighter now that it has dried. I like the effect and am glad that we did the diagonal pattern, it's so much more dramatic that way! While I should have gone over the floor last evening, again, I did put that off until today. I'm pleased with the results and am looking forward to the next step - sealing the grout and another coat of sealer on the tiles. We have guests coming to spend the night on Saturday, so we're working with a deadline this time. My guess is that we will be able to put the new toilet in the bathroom on Friday evening. I'm including a picture of what the floor looked like before we started tiling (brick patterned linoleum), and how it looks right now (pretty new quarry tiles). You can refer back to the previous posts to see the actual tiling in process!
Beautiful work Melinda! Seriously, you may have a second career. I may want to hire you :D
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