About Time....!
I am Sure you will be glad to hear, Dear Readers, that the grout I had ordered weeks ago arrived at last! It came last Tuesday, but grouting is not the sort of task you want to tackle without ample time, so I had to wait for the weekend before getting started. Above you can see the floor with the tiles all neatly glued and waiting. I am always surprised at how nervous it makes me to add the grout. Did I space the tiles right...? Will the grout ruin the finish...? Should I seal them again before the grout...? Will it make the plywood under the floor too wet and warp the structure...? You can see I lose my confidence with too many questions. At a certain point you just have to dive in! In this case I decided to remove the front door panels and the framework to allow better access to the back of the room. The doors were going to need to be painted anyway, so it was practical to do that now.
Without the front panel or the doors you can see
the structure of the upper room as well.
And then it was time for the grout.
And I will tell you that grout is one of those messy tasks
that don't encourage picture-taking at the same time!
So there are no in-progress grout smearing shots!
Just the floor with the grout applied and partly wiped away.
And I was glad I waited for the supplies to arrive,
because I did need part of the extra bag of mix!
Whew!
At this point you simply have to wipe enough grout away
that the tiles are essentially clean, if not perfectly clean.
It leaves a silty residue....
which will eventually wipe away when it is dry.
But you want to be sure the tiles are not
covered where they shouldn't be....
dips and cracks wiped as clean as possible.
And then you have to let it dry completely.
Which takes a while.
I leave it overnight.
And I refuse to look at it...
because I am already convinced it won't be right.
The spacing wasn't right... the grout is too thick....
the color won't be right.....
Just walk away!
Because when you look in the next morning
you will know you were right....
Aiyi yii.... what were you thinking....?
It doesn't look anywhere near the way you hoped it would.
(Even the camera shots are bad.... you just don't want to look!)
And with the spotlight shining in.....
It needs a lot of work.
But I was sure that would be the case...
The grout color is much too pale to begin with....
and the floor is supposed to look old...
I knew I would have to "age" it anyway.
The first task was to "polish" the tiles
to remove as much of the filmy grout layer as possible.
I used an old dishtowel, dry not wet.
(The grout is quite abrasive and tears paper to bits)
And in one or two places I scraped back the grout
where it encroached too much on the tile....
(my hand-made tiles are very irregular in size)
But the chief task was going to be applying a
"muddy wash" to the floor.
This is another one of those steps
that is very anxiety producing....!
It is just impossible to tell as you are applying the wash
how dark it will end up once it is dry.
I used a watered down mixture of black and burnt umber acrylic paint....
more black than umber... and very watered down.
I started in the back corner by the stairs...
and it instantly looks much too dark!
You have to apply it in small areas and wipe it off the tiles before they dry.
I basically want the grout darker, but the tiles not too dulled down.
It is hard to see back there.... but knowing that
I am probably not making it dark enough....
I went back over it a couple of times....
I decided to mostly work in from the edges....
doing the outer darker tiles first...
and deciding about the middle later....
The grout drinks the water right up.....
(And the acrylic paint actually seals the grout nicely)
but you have to clean the tiles off....
mix, slather, wipe....
(It is rather messy!)
At this point you are sure that it won't be right....
The middle won't look right with the darker grout....
But you just have to carry on!
Because you won't be able to tell for sure until it is dry!
And if you made it too dark.....
it will just have to stay too dark!
(Like a dirty old floor!)
It does help to walk away.
And maybe look in later with a little atmospheric lighting....
just to check on it....
because who can resist....?
I know... you can't really see it without the spotlights!
Which do shed rather a lot of light.....
And maybe make me think it doesn't look too bad...?
But it is night.... will I still like it in the morning....?
On a Dark and Gloomy morning......
in a hurry because I must go to work....
I can't tell....
but I run my hand over the floor and it feels beautiful!
And much later.... can we add the lights....?
It is growing on me....!
And with the spotlights....?
Is it the right amount of dirty.... or not enough....?
Ah.... perhaps it is too soon to tell!
I will have to wait for a beautiful brilliant morning....
I will have to add the door and the ceiling....
I might have to live with it for a while...
But really, Dear Readers, perfect or not...
I am loving this floor with the grout!
It feels so real!
It's about time!
