Star, The Grout Doctor of Kirkland

Well, today I spent a minimal amount of money and ended up with what looks like a brand new bathtub and tiles.  I am a happy camper.  For those of you who say, well, you could have done that yourself for practically nothing, I say in return -- like that's ever going to happen.  The options were getting it done by someone who knew what they were doing, or letting it continue moldering on its own,.  Since you can't use the shower for 48 hours after the treatment is done, we opted to do the main bath first and will do our master bath after.  We are also considering (don't know the cost yet) of having the tub re-enameled.  We would do both steps at the same time of course.  That made it an easy choice to do the other bath first.

Here is the bathroom in it's original state.  It doesn't look nearly as bad in the photographs as it did in real life.  Maybe I need a higher resolution camera.  But you get the idea.  A bit yucky!

So Star, of The Grout Doctor, came by a couple of weeks ago and gave us a bid for each bathroom.  It didn't seem unreasonable to me so we determined to do it soon.  Fortunately for us, if not for them, Star's boss stopped by when we weren't home and left a card with a $20 coupon on it.  Gotta love those little quirks of life.  So we set up the date.  Star's plan (and it unfolded exactly as stated), was to grind out the layer of grout till all the grungy stuff was gone, scrape off all of the old grout and moldy caulking, give a quick acid bath to the whole thing to kill germs and make the old surface more amenable to the new grout, grout (wipe down), seal (wipe down) and lastly do the final caulking around where the tile and tub met, and around the soap dish.  The initial grinding off part provided a great deal of motivation for the dog to indulge in a competitive barking competition , so I dragged him downstairs to cut the decibels. 

 

Now for the drum roll . . . . ..  

 

 

I love it!  It has never looked this good since we moved here eleven years ago (11 years ago 3 days ago!)

Well, this is aggravating!  The "overall" photos when uploaded below looks uneven, but in real life it isn't like that.  I'm not sure why the photo is texturing.  Alas!  What you see in the photos above is right.  What you see below looks more like a coloring book maze than tile work, but that is an optical illusion! You can see the "texturing" in the light reflection along the bathtub too.   

So, in spite of the funny photo, I have nothing but good things to say about Star at Grout Doctor Kirkland.  The moment of truth will be when we turn the water back on it in two days, but as for the moment, it is gorgeous!  You can see a picture of Star and her Uncle on their website!  I like small family businesses that do quality work.  2nd tub will be done in a month or so once we determine that the re-glazing of the bathtub can be added in. 

Check them out at:  http://www.groutdoctor.com/index.php/item/seattle-eastside-washington.html