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Saturday, November 11, 2006

Home Improvement

It's house cleaning weekend. Blech.

I have white tile with white grout in the kitchen as well as both bathrooms. Did you just shudder? Those who know me well know that I'm kind of, well, a clean freak. I spent hours over the last two days scrubbing grout with soft scrub and a toothbrush. If you have never had white grout on any surface - don't get it. Don't ever, ever, get tile countertops if you can at all help it. Trust me on this. When we bought this house, I'd never had tile countertops. Although I knew it would be a pain in the arse, I passed up the countertop upgrades for other upgrades. Never, ever, again.

On the brighter side of this - I've convinced Karl to get the kitchen redone this Spring. We were going to just replace the countertops and then paint the rest of the house, but I've changed my mind. We can't do everything we want in the house at once, because, well... we're not rich. So we're just going to focus on the kitchen. Paint, countertops and flooring all at once. Why pull out appliances for three different projects? The inside of the house is in need of paint, we still have the original cheap white in all rooms but Madison's bedroom and bathroom. But it can wait awhile longer. Of course you know, we'd probably be able to do more if we were the DIY kind of couple. But we're soooooo not.

Do you have tile floors in your kitchen? Do you like it? We do have tile flooring in other areas of the house, and I find that extremely manageable. We don't wear shoes in the house, and the grout is NOT white. I didn't even seal it (on the advice of the flooring guy), and it still looks fabulous after over 4 years. I find cleaning the floors the old fashioned way (pine-sol and water in a bucket), with a cloth on my hands and knees, works best.

What are you up to this weekend? What do you hate most about your home?

11 comments:

Cupcake Blonde said...

Right now I am hating the wiring in my home because I fear the elctrician is going to have to rip open my walls.

Oh and we have tile in our bathrooms and laundry room. Our kitchen has wood floors and I love them!

I got the laminate inset in our shaowers specifically because I hate HATE cleaning tile grout...

Anonymous said...

What I hate most about my home is that it's not mine! I think you know I rent several rooms from my deal old mother. We did have fun spending HER money to redo the entire kitchen this summer - cabinets, floors, counter, sink, appliance - EVERYTHING. It looks awesome. We got marble counters and tile floor.

I am a bit of a clean freak too. I can't wait for you to get your new counter tops :)

Anonymous said...

I rent. The two things I hate are that the windows are old and drafty, I put the plastic on them in the winter to help keep heating costs down. The second thing is the boring light beige-y color on the walls. I'd like to paint to add a bit more color.

Distant Timbers Echo said...

What I dislike about my home right now is my home. I don't like the whole damn thing!

I want a log cabin in the woods.

Now.

Ken said...

What a great post! I think what I hate most about our house is the lack of a linen closet. Over 2000 square feet and no linen closet!

We have tile in our kitchen, dining room, entry way, hallways and bathroom. It is easy to take care of, but very hard on the feet. If you are only going to tile your kitchen, that shouldn't be too bad.

Unknown said...

We have ceramic tile in the kitchen and everytime something drops it shatters. Not the tile, the item you dropped. On linoleum (sp) plates would sort of bounce. Not on tile.
But I hate my tile countertops too. The grout is flaking off and it is gross. I also hate my laundry room. It is sort of a laundry "area" I would like a room to close.

Teri said...

I learned my lesson about tile countertops when I lived in my old house. When we bought this one we wanted granite, but since they didn't offer it as an upgrade I went with corian. I am not sure what I hate about my house. Let me think about that one :)

BeckEye said...

I rent and hate everything about this apartment! Especially the lame-ass landlord.

Meow (aka Connie) said...

I have white tiles and grout on the walls of my bathroom ... and I HATE IT !!! I cannot wait to get rid of it.
Our house is in dire need of a paint job, too. We have been in here 19 years, and most of it still has the original off-white colour. It is in ok condition, but starting to look shabby in places.
My hubby, fortunately, is a handyman, so we can do most stuff ourselves ... saves money, thank goodness.
Anyway, have fun doing your kitchen.
Take care, Meow

Cupcake Blonde said...

Okay I have to ask...did it bug you that they mispronounced Nevada all throughout the Studio 60 episode last week? It took me a while to stop saying Na-vah-da (I'm from the East Coast so we say everything in "proper" pronuntiation) but everyone at work from here would get on me so much that I changed and now it bugs me when I hear it the wrong way. Ne-vaa-da not Ne-vah-da.

New White Keds said...

Hey! I remember sealing those tiles! ANyway, as far as the tile floors go; I hate to say it but my Mom was right. The tile floors are very hard on teh feet and legs. If you plan on getting them in the kitchen, plan on getting well padded rugs to stand on. I find that after a day of cooking and puttering in the kitchen, my feet and legs kill me (moreso than usual).

With th edogs, I am glad we have the tile, but in a perfect world, we would have done the wood or wood laminate floors in the house.

Other than that, I LOVE our linen closet-missing house.