Damn you Machine Gun Preacher!

applying densifier

“The Grind” 9:30 AM 50/100/200 grit resins here we go. The grout slurry just does not want to come off! I am beating the hell out of it. I am trying everything I have. I know what it needs is diamonds but I do not have any to fit the hand held grinder. So I simply take it one section at a time and try not to expect perfection

“Dense” 12:30- I have finally reached my limit on the grinding. I am resolved that its the best I can do. The top is wavy and irregular, but that’s what I like about it. Its like nothing else you usually see. It has character. Its being a bitch, but it has character. So now its time to harden it up with a coat of Surecrete LD1800 densifier and hardener. As I apply the color darkens to a deep gray and I can start to see its potential, however the color is very inconsistent with all the black blotches and white streaks from all my grinder gouges.

dangit!

“Inspiration!” (from the pit) 1:00 - I decide to try and even out the color by adding some H & C gold leaf stain I have left over from a previous job. So what if the color is brown! Its custom man! Any ways doesn’t black and brown just make black?

“I see the light!” 2:00-9:00 PM- 400 to 3000 grit. with re coats of color in between. It is looking awesome! I cant believe the transformation. The color is unique and inconsistent varying between grays, olives, yellows and browns. Awesome!

-Bud Light and Buddy Rhodes - 9:30 Adding the Natural Look sealer is where the real color first reveals itself and I want to see it. So what if this sealer is 5 years old! It doesn’t have an expiration date, its fine……..

12 Hours of grinding, staining, grinding, staining, polishing, staining, polishing, staining, and more polishing. Not to mention 12 hours with my Ermator concrete vac running in my ear.

Now its 9:30 at night, my kids spent another Saturday without their Daddy as I spent the day with my back to them hammering away at these blasted counters. But alas, I am done! ”Honey what do you think?”

The problem is, OK one of the problems is that when you spend 12 hrs hovered over 1 small area of the counter at a time you don’t ever get the real picture of what the piece as a whole looks like. Each small section by itself is unique and has some very cool qualities, but because off all the additional tweaks I added, it’s a collective train wreck of patterns, colors, shapes and texture. Now my wife, God bless her,said she would live with it, but the bottom line is it SUCKS and I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Oh I have a good idea. How about I drink a couple Gin and tonics and watch Machine Gun Preacher on Netflix, that will put things in perspective!

And it did