• Granite & Quartz: Microfiber cloth along with one of the following...
  
  • 50/50 mix of alcohol & water
    
  • Hand dish detergent & water (go light on the detergent if your stone is dark)
    
  • "Method" granite cleaner & polish
    
  • "Perfect Kitchen" (sold at BB&B)
    
  • When cleaning, wipe/dry in circles to help prevent streaks with any cleaner/polish
    
  • **Warning** Don't use plumber's putty on your marble or granite counters to install your faucets or soap dispensers or with a composite granite (e.g., Silgranit) sink

  Question: Do those of you with marble use the alcohol/water mix, detergent/water mix, Method, or Perfect Kitchen?

• Wood:
  
  • 
    

• Stainless Steel, Copper, etc.: Microfiber cloth along with one of the following...
  
  • 
    
  
  

Appliances

• Stainless Steel Appliances: Microfiber cloth along with one of the following...
  
  • Weiman SS Cleaner/Polish in the silver can
    
  • Pledge in the brown can
    
  • 3M SS Cleaner and Polish (aerosol spray)

• Ceramic/Glass cooktops/ranges:
  
  • Ceramic/glass oven surface cleaner
    
  • Razor blade for stuck-on food

• Non-Ceramic/Glass top ranges/cooktops:
  
  • BarKeeper's Friend or Dawn Power Dissolver (and a blue scrub sponge) for a thorough cleaning of the black burner pans
    
  • "Perfect Kitchen" for spot cleaning the black enamel burner pans on Wolf ranges
  
  

Floors & Backsplashes (Wood, Tile, etc.)

• Tile Floors & Backsplashes:
  
  • Hot water should be all you need for most of the time.
    
  • If you need a grease-cutter, use Oxyclean.
    
  • Do not use vinegar or vinegar-containing products. Yes, vinegar will clean your grout, but that's because vinegar works by eating away at the grout, little by little. It'll literally burn the grout away over time.

• Hardwood Floors:
  
  • Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner

• Slate Floors:
  
  • 
    

• Slate Backsplashes:
  
  • 
    
  
  

Cabinets

• Stained Cabinets:
  
  • A soft cotton cloth is recommended to wipe any moisture, spills or standing liquid from cabinetry. While paper products are very good at absorbing spills, they are abrasive when used for cleaning.
    
  • To clean cabinetry, use a soft cotton cloth, dampened with water or a mild dish soap
    
  • If dish soap used, wipe with a clean damp cloth to rinse
    
  • Dry with soft cloth
    
  • Harsh chemicals or ammonia based products should be avoided as they may cause discoloration of the finish.
    
  • Do not use detergents, oily polishes, or glass cleaners.
    
  • An occasional light waxing may be required. Avoid frequent cleaning with a waxy cleaner. Use a good furniture brand polish on your cabinetry

• Painted Cabinets:
  
  • Damp (not too wet), soft cloth or sponge and mild detergent
    
  • 
    

• Laminate Cabinets:
  
  • Use a damp cloth and water to clean surface of cabinetry, then wipe with a dry cloth.
    
  • Use a countertop or tile cleaner to clean heavy grease stains or other difficult stains.
    
  • Do not use abrasive pads or harsh cleaners to clean soiled areas.

• High Gloss Cabinet Finishes:
  
  • Clean high gloss cabinetry with mild soap and a damp cloth.
    
  • Do not use a wax cleaner whatsoever, to avoid discoloration.
    
  • 
    
  
  

Sinks and Sink Fixtures

• Stainless Steel Sinks:
  
  • Mild detergent & water
    
  • BarKeeper's Friend (it will also help minimize the look of scratches on the bottom of a sink)

• Composite Granite (Silgranit) Sinks:
  
  • 
    

• Porcelain Coated Cast Iron Sinks:
  
  • 
    

• Nickel fixtures (polished or brushed):
  
  • Mild detergent & water
    
  • **Warning** Don't install a nickel strainer or drain (stick with Stainless Steel or Chrome)
    
  • **Warning** Don't use BarKeeper's Friend or other chemicals on nickel
    
  • **Warning** Don't use bleach on nickel
  
  

Love your little guy. I thought that was the fridge but then see it's the pantry.

And the can storage - very nice and similar to mine. DH used drawer divider from Lee Valley and plywood to make the dividers for my drawers. Cost about $20 and fits exactly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lee Valley dividers

I've used epoxy grout ten times. Always worth it. Use a fresh microfiber rag for cleanup.

If everyone around you is stressed out, don't bother. Nonsanded regular (Portland cement based) grout is also good when well done. It would be good to tell us all what justification the store gave for epoxy grout. I cannot believe that it's because of the tile itself, so it's none of their business.

When brickmanhouse said it "never" comes off, he indirectly mentioned one of its great advantages: it gets hard. It's also non-porous. What could be better in a kitchen? No coffee stains in your grout. If you like light colored grouts, it's amazing. It's great in all the other colors too.

The same scraping tool used to score Hardibacker can scrape epoxy grout off tiles after it has hardened for years. You can reshape edges too. Anything else hard enough to score cement is good too. The experience brickmanhouse had doesn't represent the best installation. His discoloration may be due to installation (e.g1. reworking the grout a lot after watering it down at cleaning time at the end. It's like as if you reclaimed highly chewed bubble gum and merged it with new freshly chewed bubble gum: the colors won't match up.) . ( e.g.2. his white epoxy may have been applied on top of dark gray Portland cement thinset - and if it gets worked a lot, some of that fresh + weak gray thinset could have gotten absorbed by the liquid epoxy. Which is also a normal risk with any other white grout, non-epoxy. It happens all the time.)

To be safe, if you have the free time, fill the grout lines partially in advance with white thinset or with a regular Portland cement type grout, in a color close to your epoxy grout color --- then you only have a miniscule volume left to fill with epoxy, like a touchup. (Epoxy is good for touchups, btw) It can be hard for some people to fill narrow grout lines, with epoxy, and secondly it is very hard to know whether or not you have managed to get the grout down into the bottom of the gap. This is important, just as brickmanhouse mentioned.

Why make sure your grout lines are fully filled? Because otherwise it slumps. Epoxy is a slumper. The worst thing is to have air spaces under the edges of your tiles (because of the ridges left behind by the trowel), because when the epoxy grout goes down deep into the grout line gap, it appears to be "fully packed" and then later it slides more into the empty spaces, gradually while hardening. Epoxy grout sliding into the air spaces causes the finished grout surface to slump down at many places in your floor. --- Which you could fix with another little box of epoxy grout when you do a touchup.

Tilesetting with a notched trowel is how you end up with miniscule air pockets, not a concern under most circumstances. Some tilesetters won't think about this because they've never had to. The worst case for epoxy would be very thin grout lines with lots of air at the bottom (which might be invisible to your DIY eye). If you keep this in mind when you lay the tile in the first place, you can make sure that you leave a lot of thinset in the grout lines. If they are overfilled, use a toothpick or popsicle stick to remove some while you're laying tile, or use a paperclip the morning after to scrape seom out. Otherwise, filling the space between the tiles with a little more thinset later is a good step.

All cements harden gradually over time. There is no magic number of hours days week or months. Once it appears solid, it is still very weak. We may say it has hardened, and it may be far more solid than liquid; regardless, it's just a manner of speaking. With any of the kinds of cement mentioned above, use the "morning after" as the best time to go back and rub off specks that you want gone, to rub down rough surfaces and polish them, and with epoxy perhaps even to reshape the surface of the grout line. It depends how hard it is when you come back to it. I once spent hours listening to the radio while smoothing out the epoxy grout lines in a shower, the same day not the morning after.

The cost for a large quantity of epoxy grout is $100. That's a very small amount of money compared to all the other things you buy without blinking.

My cost was 1/4 or 1/3 of that: I got the smallest box of epoxy grout and filled the grout lines in advance with leftover white thinset.

It's not about money.

Read all the instructions several times, long in advance. Get those simple steps figured out. It says you need to have clean water available.

hth

Here's a pic of the Vale Mist... Not sure how it will translate over the computer, but I love the color!

Actually, I will go to my house tomorrow and paint an area spanish olive for you. Hang in there!!

L

I sealed it before and after grouting, and don't have any particular trouble...But because my counters are 27" or more deep on each side of the rangetop, the rangetop is also bumped out a few inches. I think this makes a difference on how much splashes make it to the backsplash, so I think the distance, as well as the sealer, may play a part in the ease of cleaning. I know, though, that we've splashed it good with oil a few times, and I wiped it down with water with a bit of dish detergent in it.

The sealer I used is from Home Depot. It's called Super Seal: Ultimate Penetrating Sealer. The backsplash has been up and grouted for over a year, and I might have sealed it once since then, but I can't remember for sure. I just looked and the backsplash still looks new to me.

By the time you pay to have them cut, the cost difference would be much smaller than the materials cost, and you'd always know you settled. Plus, if the cuts are anything less than PERFECT you'll be able to see it easily, meaning you need a *really good* tile guy with a *brand new* blade and a high quality tile saw. Again, costing more than most other 'merely good' tile guys who could do a nice job on a simple backsplash without a lot of unnecessary cuts.

I'd try to either feel the love for the Adex 2x8 (a really nice tile, by the way) or figure out the total dollar cost difference for the WZ (my personal favorite tile, bar none, and the ONE place in my kitchen remodel where I refused to scrimp) and learn to live with it. One thing I know about the WZ -- If you can scrape up the money (and I know, not everyone can) -- it's one decision you will never regret, and will find joy in every day.

I spent countless hours pouring over photos of finished kitchens here, and now I want to share my space with those who helped me and those who I might help as well.

Here are the details:

Cabinets: Custom made maple, Buttermilk stain (one shade darker than natural). Island has a black glaze over the stain.
Granite: Juparana Crema Bordeaux with Black Galaxy on desk. All granite with beveled edge.
Backsplash: 1x2" tumbled travertine brick mosaic with SGM 127 sanded grout. Color: Beach
Flooring: Rapalano 20x20" rectified porcelain set in diagonal. Grout color: Light Smoke
Lighting: Pendants: Murray Feiss Parker Place, white opal etched glass for island and brushed steel over sink. Under cabinets: GE Slimline fluorescent with warm white bulbs (great bang for the buck! We would never dim these lights so no need to pay more, plus they stay nice and cool)
Faucet: Hansgrohe Talis S
Pulls and Knobs: Jeffrey Alexander Milan collection in satin nickel. One Soko Manhandle in stainless steel.
Drawer Slides: Accuride side-mount, full-extension with soft close. Wonderful!
Appliances: All were existing and include a Bosch dishwasher, LG refrigerator, Panasonic microwave and Jenn-Air slide-in range.
Special features: appliance garage, spice pullouts, tray storage drawer, pantry storage drawers for canned goods.
Favorite features: large drawers instead of base cabinets (except under sink and beverage storage cabinet), tray storage, pantry drawers and pullouts

Before:

After:

Pantry and refrigerator wall:

Sink area and pendant lighting:

Desk:

Appliance garage:

Tray storage drawer (I opted for this over a trash pullout and love it!):

Upper pantry area:

Lower pantry-storagedrawers for canned goods (need to get dividers!):

Spice pullouts:

Bowls, pasta bowl, even canisters fit in drawers:

Love my in-drawer knife storage-Henckels from Amazon:

Beverage storage cabinet includes a basket for storing onions, garlic, etc.:

DH has decided that he wants a water filtration system. We've been without one for a month or so and it's doing a number on his stomach. (he tends to have problems with that). Anyway, he wants a RO system because he thinks we wouldn't have to change the filters as much (he drinks a LOT of water). My only concern (gripe) is that we currently have a 3 hole sink (already installed--and yes we should have thought about this earlier but thought we would just use the filtered water in the fridge). I have a faucet with a separate handle and a soap dispenser, which I LOOOOVE and hate to give up. Any ideas about that?

But please tell me what kind of system you have, how often you change the filter, the flow it has and if you use it for cooking too or just drinking water. Thanks!!

The silver one is for trash cans mounted on rails or shelves (i.e., suspended from a shelf or rail): 502.15.220
Foot Pedal, Rails/Shelf (TrashcansAndMore)
Foot Pedal, Rails/Shelf (KitchenSource)

The black one is for trash cans mounted on a base drawer/shelf (i.e., sitting in a base): 502.15.113
Foot Pedal, Base (TrashcansAndMore)
Foot Pedal, Base (KitchenSource)

They're designed for frameless cabinets BUT, if you check the link below you will find a series of 4 pictures describing how a GWer made them work for face frame cabinets!

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Pull Out Trash Foot Pedal--How to make it work with Face Frame Cabinets (4 pics & description)