Thank you to Fred S, Curt D'Onofrio, Orchard Home Design, Houssaon, and Patricia Colwell. I went to Daltile and found out what actually happened and why. The boxes were installed before the tile was done. The tile installer started installing the border higher so it wouldn't interfere with the boxes even though the plans called for a center placement. The builder who happened to be there had him stop and lower it as he felt the border would not be seen. It is the builder's standard placement of the boxes, not "code" as the young electrical installers told me. The builder should have notified us and had us come in right then. We are close by and could have been there in 10 minutes. Our rep at Daltile completely understands why I am so upset with this. She said she will be more cognizant from now on of the backsplash installation for this builder knowing their standard electrical box placement. She said this has never happened before. Of course, all of this doesn't help my situation. She said she would do whatever she could as far as the materials cost but doesn't deal with the installer. She further explained that the 9 boxes would need to be moved and the drywall would need to be redone so she could not give me a cost for all of this. She suggested that I have our attorney put a clause in stating my unhappiness with the backsplash and that I might choose to have it redone in the future. Later, my realtor called and said if I choose to have this redone, there will be an up charge to me. I have no idea how much all of this would cost and have to get a price from our builder. The realtor also suggested I call my attorney so they can notify the builder's attorney of this situation. So I am going to talk to the realtors today and have them get the price to have the backsplash done over. I will also try to get some estimates to have the outlet covers faux painted to match the tile border. My advice to anyone having a tile backsplash with a decorative border installed is to consider the electrical box placement. Thank you for all of your help with this matter.

Eco wood treatment My wife and I bought a timber peg lake house last March and the interior was a monolith of orang-ish red cedar beams. While we love the structure - the deep orange tone was just not something we were thrilled with. The interior wood has never been stained or otherwise treated so we decided to use Eco Wood treatment. WOW!!! We and everyone else who visits the house are ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED with the results. The wood all turned a consistent, silvery chocolate color - not a hint of orange remains. The final color developed in about two weeks. I am so grateful to have discovered this product as I wanted the wood to look weathered/distressed without any shine or loss of wood grain visibility. We used a pump sprayer and did an occassional brush touch-up for the few areas that required a second application.

Simple fix which you have a few options. (1) If you're wanting a good workout, jerzeegirl has posted a valid product. (2) A simple DIY would be to use a wet look sealer over the entire floor. This method would need to be reapplied every few years. (3) Have a professional tile contractor come out and hone and re-polish the entire floor. -- Personally I would go this route to ensure everything is perfect when finished. This person should also be able to clean and reseal the stone. Once this has all been taken care of, the only cleaning products you will need for your floor is: 1 cap full of Dawn dish soap and a bucket of water. The dawn dish soap helps break down dirt and grease on the floors, water washes it away. As you have learned here, never use vinegar on natural stone. If you have stubborn grout that doesn't want to come clean, post on this thread so that we may lead you in the right direction.

I think you just had dirty grout and cleaned it in spots where you applied mixture or scrubbed harder. Get some Fantastic with bleach. It will clean just about any grout. Try cleaning a dark spot in the middle of the whiter ones. If it then matches the white you need to scrub the rest of the floor. A stiff bristle brush and soaked with Fantastic with BLEACH in it and your floor will look new. Landlord should have cleaned before you moved in.