Octo-dot

We picked out the tile for the guest bath! We're going with Daltile octagon dot in matte white. I saw it on sale at the West Hills Lowe's last night for $2.57 per sqft! Unfortunately someone had already cleaned them out, leaving only a couple of broken sheets. Luckily, we were able to find the 45 sqft we need at the Burbank location. Just to give you an idea, this tile retails for $3.99 at Home Depot, so imagine my excitement to see it at such a great price! -Plus I think it's just what that bathroom needs.
We still haven't decided on grout color yet. I know it will look best in white, but I'm not really thrilled at the thought of cleaning it, so maybe a light grey. Do you think grey grout will just look like dirty white? I think the grout shown below is a little too dark, but it gives a good idea.

My goal is to pick up the tile and prime at least one room tonight. I have Friday off, at which time our appliances will be delivered and phone line installed, so I'll have some solid time to paint. I'm super-psyched about our appliances! Well really just our fridge. The washer and dryer are pretty vanilla, but they'll be in the garage and out of sight. But our fridge! She's a beaut, aint she?

I can almost guarantee you will never find upright celery sticks or a lemon cake on a pedestal in our new fridge, but I may be a little inspired once it's sitting in our totally dated kitchen, so all bets are off!

***UPDATE*** I was at Home Depot over the weekend and discovered that they sell the same Octo-dot tile for $2.57, regular price, not on sale. I now can't find where I saw that it was $3.99 per sqft. Anyhow, I'm not sure if you have a preference between Lowe's and Home Depot, but lately I've had better luck with customer service and finding what I need at the 'Depot. My sister, Tali, mentioned that she went to Home Depot looking for the same tile and they only had it with white octogons with black dots; however, they offered to special order the one she wanted for the same price. Talk about service.

Grout-chy Oven Lovin' (thanks Mark)

What a weekend! The pipe burst was completed on Friday and we now have a fully functional sewer line! The garage door was installed as well. It's beautiful and the quietest garage I've ever heard (or not heard, because it's that quiet)!

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent cleaning, fixing toilets, caulking, cleaning, lining shelves, scrubbing, sweeping, cleaning, taping, and cleaning. I spent all of Friday on the guest bathroom. This one is not in our remodel budget, so I decided to see what can be done about the awful black grout in the shower. Photos cannot convey just how bad this was (but I'll show you anyway).

A friend suggested a solution of equal parts water and vinegar as a safe alternative to bleach (and much less harsh on the grout). I put the solution in a spray bottle and scrubbed with a grout brush. It was a grout miracle worker!!!

I then removed all of the caulk from the tub. Previous owners had used the do it yourself caulking strips that come on a roll. Only problem is they didn't remove the moldy grout from beneath. EWWWWWWWW. It took a lot of scraping to get the 1960s black caulk off (hehehe), but in the end, it was a huge success! I let the area sit and dry over night and reapplied caulk (this time with a caulking gun) on Saturday.

Check out the white grout!!!

The bathroom is now taped off and ready to be painted!

As for Mark, his weekend consisted of 8 or so trips to Home Depot and Target (I went on a couple of those runs), scrubbing the #$(*& out of our once naaaasty dirty oven that is now sparkling clean, bug fogging, wall scrubbing, door removing, and hose figure outing.

He did such an amazing job with the oven! I wish I had gotten a better before shot. The oven had to be dustbusted first, there was so much gunk in there!

Oh! And lock installing! Mark changed out all of the locks/knobs in the house. *Note to listing agent: your Supra is dangling from our mailbox still attached to the knob.

As I said, what a weekend! We had a blast though! Good music and great company. A massage or hot tub soak right about now would be nice though...