u/batardo

I finished this tile floor (the first I've done) about 24 hours ago. I did the grout in three sections, used Mapei Ultracolor FA plus in an off-white. The first two sections dried out pretty quickly, like in the first four hours or so. I put on the last one at about 8 p.m., and by that point it was getting cooler, like in the 60s, and I had the windows open. But here I am the next day and it hasn't dried out.

I did clean the last section with a sponge more than the others because I was worried about haze. But the sponge was very dry and it wasn't an incredibly large amount of additional washing.

There is definitely no moisture coming from below. Subfloor was well-prepped and this is installed over ditra. It's also very clearly happening only in the area where the last batch of grout was applied.

I put a space heater pointing into the room a couple hours ago, but so far no noticeable change. Do I just wait this out? Anything else I should do?

I'm wondering what you all think about this situation. I'm trying to sharpen a plane iron and don't have much experience doing so.

I have a good process in place for getting the bevel -- I have a honing guide and all that. But the bottom needs to be as dead-flat as possible. You can use the so-called "ruler trick" to back-bevel it slightly to get around a not-flat back, but I'd like to just flatten the back so I don't have to worry about all that.

It seems to have a hump in the middle. So my strategy has been to put a piece of PSA sandpaper on a granite flat reference stone to get rid of material fast. I also have a diamond stone (sort of like an Atoma but cheaper/worse). But it's taking absolutely forever. I've been at it for maybe a couple hours total.

I'll move to water stones, but only after I get a basic level of flatness.

Any thoughts on how to handle this? I'm thinking about maybe focusing only on the first inch or so near the edge -- at least then it's less material to take off.

I don't have access to a lot of tools or a lot of time and would have done this differently if I did.

Anyway, I have a panel made of hard maple that I milled and glued up. One of the boards has three spots where it looks like the planer knives burned it a bit. I saw it when it came off the planer but didn't want to spend the time running everything through again...I was in a bit of a rush. It's odd, though, because it's not terribly dark. It's also been impossible to get out.

I have of course sanded it. I put some water on it to lift the grain, then sanded. I've also gone over it with a hand plane. No dice. It has to be pretty deep in there. Any ideas on how to handle this?

Hi lighting experts - I'm rehabbing a small attic room to use as an office. Currently it has a regular light fixture in the middle of the room, which obviously isn't ideal.

I'm curious how you'd approach lighting this kind of space. I looked a bit at anti-glare recessed and regressed lighting, but am not sure that is the right way to go. I'm also unsure how many downlights to put there. I could have one at either end or a single one in the middle.

At a high level I want practical lighting that still can be warm and not glare-y. Dimmable is probably important because lighting conditions will vary considerably over the course of the day, and I like having natural light to whatever extent possible. But I truly have no idea what I'm doing.

Any advice much appreciated.