Matching angle grinders: The key to marital bliss?

I'm not sure how many days it has been now since we got the brilliant idea of grinding the kitchen floor... I think seven. If I'm right then this is day seven.

You see this is one of those projects that we started thinking we would make things easier for ourselves... Daily now - I have regrets about starting - but it's too late now. Back when we just had lumpy mortar all over the floor -- it didn't spread fine dust around the house when we walked on it. It was awful-looking though and getting very dirty since we couldn't mop the rough surface... (And with two boys and two little bitty girls spilling stuff fifteen times a day....)

So that's when we had started chipping at it with the hammers and chisels. We figured it had to be done eventually anyway - so why not? Well -- I can tell you why not. There is a reason that such 'projects' used to be given to prisoners in the cruellest concentration camps: It will quickly drive you completely mad.

It's that madness that drove us to run out and rent a giant floor grinder to get the job done... (Some of that story can be found by clicking HERE...)

We learned that the giant floor grinder was fantastic at making a huge dusty, muddy mess... but not all that great at actually getting the mortar up off the floor. This was especially true near cabinets, walls, or in corners -- which of course are the types of areas which make up the vast majority of our kitchen floor.

Unfortunately -- the impact of the rented giant floor grinder has been long lasting. It managed to take up the top crusty, crunchy layer of mortar and left a fine powdery mess throughout the kitchen... Just right for sticking to the bottom of little shoes and getting tracked all over the house. Plus -- it smoothed it all down to the point that chisels and hammers were no longer effective.

We tried mopping. We tried scrubbing. We tried sandpaper - scouring pads... Chemicals... We tried sheer will and determination.... Then Dave went out and bought a 4 1/2" angle grinder... and a shop-vac.

It's thrilling that the grinder actually does get the mortar up - and whatever area we grind is blissfully clean when we are through... However -- in case you missed it up there... It's a 4 1/2" angle grinder. Four and a half inches... Let's just say progress has been slow.

And so today on day seven (if it is indeed day seven... the days blur together now)... I poked Dave as we were waking up and said "I need my own angle grinder."

Now we have two angle grinders... We like to think of them as the equivalent of a 9" angle grinder. Now we can both work at the same time, make twice the deafening noise, and generate a mortar dust cloud twice as large as before.

For all of you interested people out there -- this is the kind of thing that keeps a marriage together.