A Clear Mistake

If you recall, after we finally “finished” our kitchen, I had one more minor detail to finish, and it was harder than I thought. You know, that trim I had to install about the cabinets in which I kept cutting incorrectly. (In case you don’t remember). Well, I am happy to say I did eventually finish the trim, and all I had left to do was caulk the seams to really bring it all together.

I figured that while I was at it, I would also caulk along the counter top since it was in pretty rough shape. Not a hard task at all, grab a caulk gun, some white caulk and go to town.

Unfortunately, when I picked up my million bottles of caulk at the Home Depot, I somehow managed to grab one bottle of clear caulk, not white. And wouldn’t you know it, that was the one bottle I grabbed to do this ENTIRE job. I bet you are saying “didn’t you notice it was clear when you started actually caulking?” Funny thing about that, it comes out white and dries clear. Funnier thing about that, it takes about an hour before it actually begins to dry. So, I started out on my caulking adventure, and I was doing a pretty damn good job of not applying too much, which is a first for me. In my confident stride, I caulked the whole kitchen in about an hour. The seams, the counter tops and even covering a few pesky nail holes. About the time I finished, I looked back at where I started and noticed that all of the seams were beginning to show again. I was perplexed to say the least…and then I glanced down at my bottle of caulk. Yup, clear.

So, all of that work had gone right out the window. I had to walk away and start again another day…and the second go ’round, I wasn’t as light handed with the caulk, which made the whole thing go even worse. My lesson here, make sure you always read what you are using, no matter how confident you are that you have the right thing, even if it looks like the right color when you start. At least it’s finally done.