Just roll with it. (Or: Once is enough.)

Some days the things I planned to do just don't get done and instead I end up doing something else entirely or nothing at all.

Yesterday was one of those days.

I was thinking making granola sounded like a good idea. Somewhere the wires got crossed and what I ended up doing was working on grout.

Granola. Grout. Whatever. I can't help how my brain works; I just roll with it.

So I don't have a granola recipe to share today, but I have a ROOM! with TILE! that's GROUTED! and SEALED!

If you don't understand why I'm so excited about a tile floor you can read about the process by which said floor was completed here and here. In true Pipe Life form, we've been living on the tiled-but-not-grouted floor for a few weeks. We finally got it grouted late last week, then yesterday I did the FINAL FINAL step of sealing the grout. Then I got down on all fours again and scrubbed every. single. stinkin'. tile. one more time.

Before:

Interestingly, as I searched my files for a halfway decent picture of the floor before it was tiled, I found this one that I took exactly a year ago - April 27, 2009. This one shows where Sam taped out a Four Square court. Ingenious little stinker, isn't he?

After:

It's done. And now I can start moving furniture out from the places in the house it doesn't belong and back into our front room.

I liken this particular project to having a baby. You wait so long for it to happen, then when the day comes you're not sure you're ready but there is no turning back. During the height of the work certain people are threatened to within an inch of their lives. You laugh. You cry. At some point you wonder how anyone could have thought this was a good idea. But you work through the pain and at the end you have a wonderful prize for your effort. After a couple of weeks you have forgotten all about how much it hurt and you think it might be worth doing again someday.

Yes, tiling is like having a baby.

Except for that part about forgetting how much it hurt and wanting to do it again someday. The prize at the end? Beautiful. Totally worth it. Do I ever want to do it again? Not on your life.