The Forgotten Back Splash

So it just dawned on me that I never showed you the final back splash pictures of it being completely done.  Picture me slapping my forehead.  The last time I talked about it was pre-grout.  Oops!  If you forgot what it looked like, you can see the first part of it here.  But way back in February I finally grouted the tile.  I found a gorgeous mocha color grout that really went well with the tile colors.  I'm not a fan of obvious grout lines.  Like I never understand why people have tan tile and use white grout.  Ew.  I had actually already purchased a grout from Lowe's when I bought all of the supplies that was the closest shade to the tile but I wasn't over the moon about it.  When I went to Menards that weekend I looked at their grout and found the mocha color and immediately knew that it was so much better than what I already had.  And I am so happy with how it turned out.  Here's a quick shot pre-grout.

See how you can see the white mortar underneath the tiles?  I definitely didn't want that look.  So I made up the mocha grout and almost ate it- it looked so yummy.  I'm not kidding.  If I liked chocolate, I would have at least licked it a little bit to see if it tasted chocolatey.  I have no shame in admitting that.  But I didn't so we're all good.

{see what I mean?  yum.}

Now it was time to slap it on the wall.  Or as my Florida boys like to say to me- put em on the glass.  Anyhooo!!!!!  

I will say that I NEVER imagined that this step would be so damn messy.  My word!  I mean, I get it.  It's like playing with mud.  But whenever I watch tiling on HGTV it's always super easy and clean.  Ahhhh the trickery of editing.  Damn those sneaky bastards.  After getting all of the crevices full of grout and wiping it down more than a few times- this is what I was left with.  

And a close up.  Clearly you can still see a little fogginess on this so it needed another washing post picture.  But it's so shiny in person.  

Here's a shot of it today- over a month later.  And I haven't cleaned it once since it was grouted.  

I do have to say this- it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be overall.  I've never tiled before but I'm definitely up to doing it again.  I am not an expert nor would I think I'm all that great at it- but for my first time ever doing it- I think I did a pretty damn good job!  Picture me patting myself on the back.  Way to go, mama!!  Now, let's just see how long it sticks to the wall.  Hah.  

Anyway- on to the part that I'm throwing myself under the bus.  THIS is how it's looked since I finished OVER A MONTH AGO:

See anything missing?  Ummm I'll just point it out to you if you don't.  The molding isn't put back on in front of the sink.  You know- where all the water gets splashed around when I'm not doing all of those dishes that need to be done?  Yes- just straight up drywall.  I did have a semi acceptable reason for not having it back on.  I really wanted to paint it again as well as the windowsill ledge above it.  They were getting kind of cruddy from being in front of the sink and having all of the jars and crap on them.  So it just took me a while to pull out the paint can.  That and I also didn't have any Liquid Nails.  And every time I went to Lowe's I completely spaced on picking any up. 

So this past Sunday I ran in and got some and repainted the moldings.  Once they were dry I squirted the LN all over the back of that molding, stuck it up on the wall, held it for a little bit, removed my hands and watched the molding fall right off.  Muther chucker!!!!  Well clearly I needed to rig up something because I wasn't about to be holding that molding up for hours while it dried.  So here we have Exhibit 1:

Kind of hilarious, right?  That shit worked though.  Again, slapping myself on the back.  I still need to fill one of the old nail holes and re-caulk around the edges to seal it up again but other than that she's looking all purty!  Glamour shot time!

Now on to something else.  So you all know how much I love to clean, right?  And I'm being serious.  Totally love to clean.  However, there are a few things that I absolutely despise doing as far as cleaning goes.  One of them is ironing.  Hate it.  Well I realized a couple of weekends ago that since I moved into my house (roughly 3 1/2 years ago) I have not once cleaned my window blinds or my baseboards.  Or the windows for that matter- I mean, we're friends- I feel I can be totally honest with you.  You won't judge me.  The thing with the windows is that my blinds are never open so I don't ever SEE the windows- so if they are dirty I wouldn't even know.  So that one I totally excuse. Not that big of a deal.  Now- the blinds however, kinda filthy.  I'm not gonna lie.  Well Miss Wendy, Miss Judy and I headed out for a massage and then went to the Container Store afterwards where I found this bad boy for $4.99.  

I couldn't wait to test it out the minute I got home.  I have two skinny little windows in my breakfast nook going out to my screened porch.  I figured I'd start there.  For all of you who don't get it- here it is in action:

It's quite easy- not sure who came up with this genius contraption but I'd like to make out with them.  And here is what it looked like after just ONE window.

Ew.  So it definitely works- as you can see how dirty the microfiber is.  Now I just need to get off of my lazy couch sitting ass and do the other 47 windows.  Yay!