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This week, I’ve been completely high on the getting-it-dones. Not only had my dad and I done the first round of scooping mud onto the drywall panels in his dining room, but I’d actually managed to get the grout finished in my kitchen in the same weekend.
BOOM. And I also sealed the grout around the stove, which meant I could finally shimmy her back into her rightful place along the wall. Like a real kitchen or something.
I need to do a little cleaning on the stovetop, and then it’s Pancake City.
Not only was that part of my productive weekend, but this week has been going by in a flash too – thus the lateness of my Dueling DIY post (I’ve been at the dentist twice in the last week. As we type, half of my face is still numb & I sound drunk when I speak).
Carrie beat me to the posting, for ONCE (hey, it’s not dueling DIY unless there’s a little smack talk! She even flat-out called me a b!tch in her update. Snap. Guess I’ll have to flash my gleaming tiled kitchen-y goodness again:
Sorry, what’s that? Can’t hear you. I’ve got finish line in my ears.)
And I even caulked between the kitchen counter and tile. Like some wildly productive elves just invaded the house this week and got all of these little things done.
But, as I began: I was high on the getting-it-dones. I was calling dentists, and refilling prescriptions, and getting taxes filed, and crossing the “caulk everything in the kitchen” tasks off my list (I’ve been shocked at the amount of productivity I can have when I’m not spending 2+ hours per day commuting to and from work!). Or so I thought, because then I saw the same caulk this morning.
The caulk freaking yellowed overnight. Cue the sad trombone. And the tube itself even brags about how this can’t possibly happen. I called the manufacturer (because I’ve used Dap products all over this house and never once had an issue like this, so something must be up) and explained the situation; they’ve put me in touch with one of their experts to get to the bottom of it (we’ve already hypothesized & ruled out several things, like the mineral oil treatment on the counter, done some comparison testing, etc.). I’ll let you know how all of that goes in a follow up post, and I’m also working on a general caulking post about filling the gap between a tile backsplash and an oiled countertop (since that presents its own challenges, like painters tape not sticking, thus having to find other ways of getting a straight line).
But, aside from that small step backward, let’s enjoy the great big steps forward one more time. Before:
And after:
And of course, all of your kitchen progress! Link up, folks. More productivity is just what this week needs.
That tile looks like a million bucks! It’s really going to snap when you get the electrical cover plates installed.
I wonder about if that kitchen and bath, stick-on rubber gasket type stuff I’ve seen at the home center would work in place of caulk? I suppose it may not stick to the oiled counter either.
I’ve seen that stuff too, and if I’m not mistaken, is a little stickier than tape & other adhesives. But like you, I’m still not sure it would work on an oily counter. Still, that would be a great option to use below the cabinets (I have to caulk up there too). Great idea!
I’m a bit upset that my boyfriend and I are delaying moving back to Atlanta for another year.. because I’d have definitely been dragging him to your first open house otherwise. Damn. Wonder if the caulk mixed somehow with the oil from the counters? Eh. Anyway. Oily caulking aside, those counters/backsplash are to die for. Ridiculous. I want to cuddle them and tell them how pretty they are.
I had the same problem with caulk turing yellow on a butcherblock. I thinks it’s from the mineral oil. I ended up scraping it off and putting down new. The new did it, so I taped it off and painted over the paintable caulk with white paint. It worked okay, just pissed me off I had to do so much work.
I totally get that. And I’d be the first to suspect the counters too, except that it turned yellow in other areas that weren’t touching the butcher block at all (so no easy answer there). I’m waiting on the guy to get back to me (who also said he thought it would be weird as the product should be tested with what he called “classic” methods of treating surrounding areas like mineral oil). So we’ll see what turns up!
The kitchen looks great. Your caulk getting stained may be caused by the tannins in the walnut. Here’s a page from Sherwin Williams’ site that explains it:
<a href="http://www.sherwin-williams.com/home-builders/products/resources/problem-solver/sw-article-pro-tanninstaining.html" title="Tannin Staining – Sherwin-Williams
Ouch, that’s too bad with the yellowing. It must be something wrong with the product, since the caulk is in contact with different surfaces. I hope you get a conclusion soon!
Tell us you’re not going to redo the caulking? As frustrating as it may be, you’re selling the house. If the casual viewer can’t see it from ten feet away, don’t waste your time. I doubt you’re going to hear “I love the entire house but that little bit of off color caulking is keeping me from buying it.”
Besides, you’ve got to leave something for the next owner. They’ll need something to write about in their blog too.
The tile + the counter looks amazing. It’s so great to see your vision come to life, no? I can’t wait to see everything else in the house get wrapped up!
Man that kitchen looks awesome. Great work. Don’t worry about the caulking. Maybe spray the caulking with bleach to see if it turns it back to white.
How did you resolve the problem of yellowing caulk between the countertop and tile? I’m having the same problem. I have removed the old caulk and want to make sure I don’t have to do it again.
I went back and used a silicone white caulk instead in some areas to test, which seemed to do pretty well (the folks at DAP sent me some after letting them know about the yellowing issue; more than likely, their customer service will send you some if you tell them the problem and ask – can’t hurt!). I didn’t yet finish things because the silicone caulk is sticky and was gumming up my butcher block, and I just didn’t like it aesthetically.
I know it’s been a while to come back to this project, but I think my best solution is to use a clear silicone caulk in the corner like I did around the sink, then when it dries, tape it using painter’s tape (since the tape might not stick to the oiled countertop, but it will stick to dried silicone) and go over that with white. Good luck and let me know if you try either of these options!