First job was to improve the waterproofing of the shower area.

I had realised that there was some possibility of the horizontal wall sheets moving relative to each other - so I bought an additional waterproofing kit and applied some fabric and two more coats of membrane in the rebate area of the join.

I think I have now done everything humanly possible to create a good shower membrane.

Next, I tried out some solution we bought in Bunnings to solve the grout smear problem.

I suspect that the product is just hydrochloric acid.

I tried it out first in a small inconspicuous area and left it for an hour to see if there were and adverse reactions

Meanwhile I started work on tiling the hobb.

This involved several hours of very fiddly tile cutting to accurately clad the two vertical surfaces.

The application of tile adhesive seemed to proceed quite easily.

The grout smear removal seemed to have worked without any ill effect so I spent the next hour cleaning up the grout work in the bathroom.

Next I decided to have a go at a bit more grouting.

I followed Ross's advice and cleaned up quite vigorously with the sponge.

This seemed to get rid of the smear problem but maybe removed a little bit too much from along the grout lines - in some case a fine, dark brown, terracotta edge is now visible.

I decided that I didn't know enough about what I was doing and asked Linda to get in touch with her brother for some advice.

I returned to working on the hobb.

This required me to cut up and mitre some one quarter beading for the top horizontal layer of tiles - in order to avoid showing a brown cut edge.

I used gold annodised aluminium extrusions and glued these down with "Liquid Nails" to keep them in position while measuring up the top surface tiles.

I have laid all the cut tiles in place but not glued them yet.

By now it was 8.30 pm - I cleaned up a few more grout smears and the headed home.