Adventures in Grouting

So, umm, yeah. Front walkway of our house is pretty much finished, except for sealing the Saltillo tile, and it looks decent enough. I could leave the story there, flush with success, but I'd be leaving out a few small details. Including, you know, just about the most miserable day I've spent in awhile.

Monday morning I was all set to go, ready to knock the grouting out. Mixed everything up, got all the assorted tiling implements out, ready to roll. Dump the grout out and, immediately, disaster strikes.

I'm still a bit confused as to the source of disaster. When I'd previously put down Saltillo tile, way back in the day, we'd mix up the grout very thin and basically squeegee it into place, floating it and smoothing out the grout lines only when it hardened a bit. Pretty quick and painless, and easy enough to clean. Much faster and easier than mixing the grout thicker and floating it into place, as one would normally do. We never used a pre-sealer before grouting, so I didn't bother this time, either. Saltillo tile is super pourous and absorbs anything, but you can clean the grout off reasonably easy as long as it's still wet.

For whatever reason, this time around, the grout instantly started hardening, basically as soon as I poured it. Not only did it instantly start setting up, but it wasn't coming off the surface of the tiles as easily as I'd remembered. So I frantically try to finish the initial grouting, so I can go back and start cleaning the grout-covered tiles, etc.

Long story short, I ended up cleaning grout off tiles for about ten hours, eventually calling in much appreciated help from the friend cavalry. On the bright side, with enough elbow grease, you can indeed clean hardened grout off Saltillo tiles. It just takes a whole hell of a lot of elbow grease.

Not much else going on. Still grinding away at the poker, still grinding away at assorted projects.

ScurvyWife and I are taking off for Galveston this weekend, which should be fun. Then a couple of weeks after that I get to run off for a poker weekend at the Grand in Coushatta from August 25-27 (more details here). Mourn, when I called they claimed that their casino properties were all full, but they also asked me twice for my non-existent Player's Card information and kept forgetting what dates I wanted to stay, so who knows. I finally gave up and just reserved a room online at the Best Western in Kinder.

It's also looking like the wife and I and assorted friends may be in Vegas from October 6-9. Tentative plans are to see the Corrales-Castillo rematch on October 8 and, *cough*, see Elton John at Caesar's. Three guesses as to which of those events is of my choosing and which, *cough*, isn't exactly of my choosing.