Grouting and regrinding the concrete floor in the kitchen was not a job I wanted to do. Chris had decided on it from the moment we’d finished grinding and polishing it last time, feeling that grouting would fill in some small holes and strengthen the concrete. Having lived through the dusty hell of the first grind I hoped he’d change his mind, however in time we did start to lose little stones from the floor and more holes appeared. The weaknesses are probably because we couldn’t get the concrete compactor to work when we first poured the concrete, meaning it’s not a tough as it should be in places.

With this being a big job, and a horribly disruptive one, we took a couple of days off work to make a long weekend of it.

Our first job was to spread of layer of grout across the concrete. It was a little terrifying thinking that we might just be ruining the floor entirely. Chris got started on the grout, while I emptied our welsh dresser to make it light enough to move, and moved various lighter pieces of furniture into one area of the kitchen so we could work on the rest of the floor. Kitchen rearranged, Chris left me to finish the grouting, while he headed off on other small jobs to keep occupied.

One job I was particularly pleased he decided to do was the skirting in the lounge. I’ve done most of the skirting in the rest of the house and I really hate it as a job. Our walls aren’t straight and the internal insulation makes it hard to find where to attach it to.

As well as fiddly skirting, he attached the lock keep to the study doorframe, and added side panels to the TV unit.

Grouting, as with all the kitchen floor jobs, had to be done a section at a time, as we had to constantly move furniture from one place to another to get to the floor beneath.

Once the grout was dry, hardener had to be rollered on and allowed to dry for 10hours. We managed to grout and harden all the floor on day one, meaning we could start on grinding on day two.

When we ground the floor last time, we hired a larger machine, which you pushed across the floor. This time, Chris brought some pads for our drills, feeling we could get the floor done this way at lower cost. Yes it was feasible, however it took a lot longer, and meant whole days bent over the floor, laboriously grinding away by hand.

To get the floor looking as Chris wanted it, we went through three grinding pads; 50, 100 and 200. We then cycled through a number which tended more towards polishing; 400, 800 and 1500. This mean each section of floor needed 6 passes, with another coat of hardener between the grinding and the polishing pads, plus lugging furniture back and forth. To say it was back breaking work is an understatement.

By the end of day four, one section of floor has been taken all the way to 1500, a second to 400 and the third to 200. We decided to prioritise getting the grinding out of the way, as the polishing pads barely kick up any dust, and we could start to clean up the horrible dusty mess once these were out of the way. I slightly wish I could book another day off to finish the last few stages and get the kitchen back to a clean and tidy order, but unfortunately neither of us have that luxury. It will be polishing and dusting for a couple of evenings instead.

Chris had ordered two sets of pads to allow us both to work on the floor at the same time. Unfortunately, he realised too late he needed an extra part to attach the second set, so for the first day we only had one person grinding at a time, while the other kept busy. My little job was sanding my tiny windowsill for the spare room. Having sanded it down I filled in a few holes with woodfiller, as well as filling the join on the larger windowsill. Once dry I can give the smaller windowsill a final sand, before starting on the bigger job of the larger windowsill.

It’s been such a tiring few days, and it’s frustrating not to have finished the job, still we’re 80% of the way there, and it was always going to be a horrible job to do. It’s been wet autumnal days outside the house, but at least there’s been plenty of rainbows to enjoy after the harshness of the rain.