Re-Grout!

The forecast this past Saturday was for rain.  The Big Guy had plans to go to Rochester to support our nephew in a big track meet.  Then he was going to have dinner with his sister's family and head to camp for the night.  That set the stage for me to get to a project that has been long overdue.  Re-grouting the kitchen counter.  We have a Dremel and I'd purchased the appropriate drill bit, grout, and a sponge a few weeks ago.  Since this was the first time I was attempting a task like this, I was both nervous and excited.

I don't know who thought white tile and white grout was a good idea, but he must not have done a lot of cooking.  Here's a section that is pretty typical of what the counter looked like.  Too much time is spent trying to clean it but there aren't sufficient funds to change it.  In some spots, the grout was just too worn down to be ignored.  Our best bet was to at least clean things up by getting rid of the old grout.  My goal was to do the left side of the sink -- which is much worse than the left.  The left side will probably get done some other time this fall.

A lot of grungy stuff came up with the grout.  This was the most labor intensive part of the job.  It took me a bit of time to get the hang of how the Dremel worked at this task.  It was slow going at first, but once I got the hang of it and was more comfortable working at a higher speed, it got a lot better.  My hands did get sore!

This is a shot of the tile with the grout removed.  I'd do a row of grout in one direction, then sweep it clean.  After about four rows, I decided to use the vacuum.   There was a lot of dust, so I am glad that I kept up with it as I went along.

The new grout looked like this once all the excess was wiped clear.  No major dishes were planned for the next couple of days.  We'll set dishes to dry on our kitchen island and then at the end of week, it will get sealed.

This is a HUGE improvement over the way it was.  I think the supplies set me back about twenty bucks.  There is plenty of grout left for the remaining counter plus some for future projects.  Maybe I'll teach myself to do some tile work.  The next time I do this, I'll probably remove a few of the questionable tiles and replace them. 

The cabinets need to be painted too, as well as repairs having to be made to one drawer.  These are old wood cabinets that were built into the wall.  When the drawers are opened, a little bit of wood shaving falls into the cabinet below.  Everything needs to come out and to be cleaned.  The floor is also a mess.  The laminate is chipped in many places -- even though I do keep it clean.  Maybe we'll do a vinyl plank at at some point as we are at least two years away from a renovation.

This kitchen has seen better days, so all I can do is try to keep it clean and refresh what I can with projects like this.  Has anyone else done a regrout like this?  Were you surprised how easy it was?  If you haven't done it but are thinking of it, get a Dremel and give it a go.  You'll get plenty of use out of the tool for other projects to, so it's worth it.