Magical Grout Refresh

I've been working hard on several home improvement projects lately. One thing that's been bothering us for a while now is the grout in all our tiled areas. We have light colored tile and what used to be white grout.. but 6 years of traffic and 1 flood later, our white grout is yuckily close to black.

We've scrubbed til our backs, arms, and fingers hurt, purchased industrial strength cleaners, and even hired a professional to work on the grout. Still it was, at best, a dark gray.

Then I found out about this:

[cue angels singing] It's actually a grout paint with a sealant mixed in. It costs about $12 at Home Depot and comes in a variety of colors. It's so easy to use. You just paint it on with a toothbrush and then wipe it off with a towel. I did end up having to do two coats in most areas to achieve the brightest results.

Here you can see my guest bathroom after I'd painted the first few tiles. Night and day difference, right?

This is all you need!

We chose "Antique White," and against our beige tile it looks really bright and snowy, which I like, but I'm glad we didn't actually opt for the "snow" option.

All white lines! We also purchased an additional spray-on sealant that I plan to use to make sure this look lasts. While it wasn't hard to do, it took a good bit of time. I've now finished the entire kitchen and dining area as well, and have spent at least 10 hours painting and wiping grout. But it was totally worth it! The results are so instantly gratifying, you may find yourself hunting for more grout lines to paint.

I discovered this little gem from Live, Love, DIY's review. I was a bit skeptical at first, but at $12 a pop, why not? You know how they said, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is??" Well, in this case, it's not!! This product really delivered. I haven't had a chance to test its durability over time yet, but I'm feeling optimistic!

And now that I've added my DIY shower curtain ribbons to match the new sink, our guest bathroom is finally, officially, finished!

Remember the sink and counter update? Now we have a sparkling clean floor to match!

Making Life Easier

Since Nate's been gone so much, I've been watching quite a bit of tv at night. But we don't have cable, so I mostly watch Netflix. And I've been getting pretty frustrated lately because something is wrong with the way our computer runs Netflix and it keeps crashing while I'm watching it. I've done everything possible to fix it with no luck. So I was venting to him about how mad it made me and he surprised me with this!

It's a Roku! It streams all kinds of tv shows and movies through the internet, and it's only as big as my hand! It was soo simple to set up. I plugged it into the wall, and then plugged it into the tv. I synced it with our wifi- and then I was pretty much done! 

You know what else is nice? It has this simple little remote control.

Check out the remote I WAS using to control my Netflix:

A few more buttons, eh? And it runs on a semi-weak bluetooth signal so it gets a little quirky sometimes. 

Oh and PS, take a gander at the system I was using to run Netflix.

nbd right?

Soo I think it goes without saying that this is not the easiest thing in the world to troubleshoot. You see those blinky blue lights at the bottom? Well, apparently they have to blink some certain color in some certain order, and if they're not, you have to fix them. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THIS?! Yet somehow Nate does know it, and can actually walk me through fixing one problem after another from 1,000 miles away. Which is fantastic, but he's not always available, and sometimes you just want things to work when you turn them on, you know? 

So in sum, my husband is really awesome for understanding my need for simplicity and making it easy for me to watch my Netflix when he's not here to set it up for me. He takes such good care of me. Thank you babe :)