Can I Have a Do-Over?

Seriously, yesterday was THAT bad.

It really started back on Friday.  Remember how thrilled I was at my new tile-cutting skill?  Bill and I were eagerly anticipating the end result of our hours of labor.  The floor was looking great, and all we had to do was grout.  How hard could that be?  Date Friday night was spent intently working away on our common goal to git 'er done.  Our ever-so-helpful neighbor, Blair, came over to assist once again.  I was in charge of the buckets and wringing out the sponges, Bill was grouting, and Blair was sponging up afterwards.  It was such a great system.  We followed the instructions on the back of the bag of grout mix precisely.  (I know, I know... what were we thinking... tiling from the instructions on the back of the bag?)  This is where we got a little hung up:

Lightly clean off grout with damp sponge.  CAUTION:  DO NOT OVER WATER.

Wait 2 hours. 

Remove haze with cheesecloth or sponge.

Once we were finished up to the "wait 2 hours" step, it was late, and the swim meet of the following morning would be upon us before we knew it (more on that another day... soon).  So we selected to postpone the "remove haze" step until after the meet.  2 hours -- 16 hours -- what's the difference.

Serious mistake.  Our porous tile had soaked up the grout haze like a man dying of thirst in a desert oasis.  The haze was NOT coming off.  And the grout, a pleasing tan color when wet, had turned a brilliant shade of white.  (Which is probably why it was called Bone.  I had made my selection from a tiny color sample on the bag, which appeared tan, apparently oblivious to reasoning that Bone would quite obviously be a shade of white.)  

I felt positively sick about it all.

(Ugly Bone grout.  My bad.)

Bill and the girls spent the entirety of Saturday evening scrubbing the haze, only to realize that there were still hours of hard labor ahead.  I hated the grout color.  We discussed our options (one of which was to rip it all out and replace it with the wood we had initially wanted, before making the decision to tile to conserve financial resources) and researched information online.

So Bill spent yesterday removing grout.  12+ hours.  What a mess.

 (I spent a good 2 hours running around finding replacement blades for Bill's nifty tool.)

 (That dust is a bugger to clean up.)

(Replacing a tile that got chipped in the process.  Because we don't have anything better to do than a do-over.)

Needless to say, I was at the end of my rope by the end of the day.

And I'll admit it, I fell apart.  Words came out of my mouth that I am ashamed of today, and apologies have now been extended to my family.  They, kindly and lovingly, have forgiven me, and allowed me a do-over.  I hope I can handle things with more grace today.

Bill has been a rock.  The best husband ever.  He has not said one negative word to me about my poor grout color choice, and the resulting work.  He has labored into the wee hours of the morning on not a few occasions.  He is making up for my measly 20% offering, which has been all I can muster the past few days.
I am such a lucky girl.

We STILL have the haze issue, for which we may be using these.

Then, let it be known, I am DONE.  We are hiring out the bathroom tile, and Bill can wisely spend his time on a less back-breaking paying job.