Look what I FOUND!! Product and Eye Candy...

Tell me I'm not lightyears behind  you guys...maybe I am...I am in Eastern Washington, no metropolis hub to keep me in the cool kid loop here. But, while drooling over pretty blogs today, I came across this...Oh. My. Lucky. Stars. 

And...

I would die right now to move into that room. Yeah. That's her house. The others are her shop. 

Soooo cool.  Check it out.

FOUND by Domestic Bliss

Ok - if any of you are still here...I have all sorts of things I've been WANTING to work on. But, little big things have derailed me. Those things that seem pretty small...until you tackle it...and apparently, it's pretty big.

We installed a neutral tile after we bought our house throughout the hallway, entry, kitchen and breakfast area when we moved in. Before, the majority was carpet (hello stains and walk patterns 3 days after we moved in). It was the worst builder idea EVERRRR. And the vinyl in the kitchen was angled to include the breakfast area and was so tacky. Completed with a bright silver metal strip between the vinyl and the carpet. Yeah. 

That lasted a minute until we could save the money to get the same tile that was in our entry way and finish the entire job. By the way - tile layers are way underpaid. It was a beast. It still is a pain when grout breaks out or when I drop a hammer on the tile and break it when we have to replace mysteriously broken tiles. 

I love our actual tile - it's gray/green and almost looks like honed concrete...It doesn't show dirt. It doesn't show sand - which where we live, is a HUGE deal. But our grout is a different story. It's gotten darker and darker in some spots, most noticeably this summer for some reason. It's filthy looking, but doesn't go back to it's original dusty brown/gray color when I clean it. There were about 10 different colors going on after we fixed some spots and couldn't use the exact same color we had when we installed it. I was terrified we were going to have to dig it all out and put in new (so messy and dusty and since I'm pregnant, just carpeting over it all again seemed like a better option!), or hire someone, which was about $1000. Both awful horrible options.

Last week I was so frustrated with it that I started looking online to see what options there were...I go to the web for all my expertise :) I found some products called "Color Sealers) that apparently color and seal  your grout in one easy step. I did some research and found some videos of one product being used on YouTube and HSN (you know it must be good, right?). So, I bit the bullet because it was about $50 including shipping for a kit that included the grout color/sealer custom mixed to my exact (original) grout color. 

I got it yesterday and put some down on the floor late last night after the kids were asleep. HOLY MOLY!!

This is one (embarrassing) spot where the grout was stained really dark and looked filthy. The grout on the right has been "color sealed".

 This section is color sealed below with the grayish grout and stained above the towels. Yeah. I was embarrassed to have anyone over

  And this after is after I scooted my 5.5 month pregnant self around on the floor for 4 hours today, cleaning, then color sealing in the grout. My hands, knees and rear end are sore, but it's not hard, and it's OH SO WORTH IT. The cost is insanely cheap compared to having a company come color seal. And I got it done, so I can't complain. It looks like I just got new tile installed. I'm in love. 

This product is just one I picked out of the various ones available, I paid for it and everything. They didn't pay me or give me free stuff for my opinion...and I think it's awesome. Now, time will tell how well it holds up, but for the cost and a few hours of my time, I don't mind doing it once a year if I have to. The company says that if you follow directions, which are super simple, it will last indefinitely. Plus, my kids are walking all over it, so unlike regular grout, we don't have to move out for a week!

If you are curious, go to Grout Shields website and see for yourself. You can have them custom mix ANY COLOR - whether it was one that was used originally, or to match a paint color! How awesome is that!! In the video on HSN, they squirt chocolate sauce and soy sauce on it, then wipe it right off...might wait a couple days before I try that. My hands in a permanent bottle hold position right now...

Mister said we had to get the tile all fixed before we could tackle another project I want to do...so hopefully now, we will be ripping out some carpet soon! WhooHooo! Stay tuned - it's another frugal DIY involving playwood planks and some old fashioned nails. 

That was a long post. Thanks for hanging in there. 

xo-Chris