Hi LInda-- In most cases, the Porous PLus is no better than the Impregnator. They'll both do the same job, only Porous Plus will be twice the cost or more. In your case, though, limestone tends to be a "thirsty" stone, so the Porous Plus might be warranted. As for the grout. I'm highly suspect of ANY premixed grout. If it's a matter of just opening up a can and spreading, I wouldn't dare use it on one of my projects. Bostik's a good company (parent company to Hydroment and Durabond), but I still wouldn't trust it.

The painter just did an incredible job on the cabinets. I can't tell you how thrilled we are. And she had never even done a glazed cabinet before- but lots of faux work. The original painter I hired had a family "event" (ugly divorce) which of course I knew nothing about, and sold his company without telling me. The guy who bought his company called me one day asking if I was ready to schedule my work and of course I didn't even know who he was - he explained the story and came and looked at the job and said he never would have bid glazing cabinets because he didn't know anything about it. This was on Day 5 when the ceiling was laying on the floor. The KD called someone, she pulled in my driveway in 90 minutes, said she was willing to give it a try and I said - with one look heavenward.. ok lets do it. The process on these 27 yr old dark stained oak cabs was *Take doors off and clean with TSP from Home Depot or other degreaser - I also used an interesting 'green' cleaning product from Trader Joes that sells for $3.00 a giant spray bottle and has cedarwood oil, sage oil and grain alcohol in it - that stuff will really clean up grease and dirt - took wallpaper down, cleaned stove tops..... *Sand door fronts to smooth any roughness from the old stain but did not try to smoothe away the oak grain *1 coat of Primer - Gripper by Glidden *2 coats of acrylic latex paint on doors and boxes - the color is Sandy Brown from the old Pottery Barn line which is a chamois color, but it was mixed into Behr Primer and Paint all in One. *1 coat glaze hand applied with artists brush to the crevices where the routing is, and wiped away, then a wash of glaze that was dry brushed into the surface of the door I watched her do a cabinet side and she dry brushed the glaze onto almost dry base paint *That had to dry for 72 hrs because the glaze needed that curing time to harden. Glaze has to have time to cure, and also needs to be covered because it apparently will re-wet. Be sure to follow mfrs instructions. *Then the entire door was polyurethaned with a satin poly *The cabinets are middle of the road Merillat and have wood fronts, but vinyl covered sides. They were degreased and scuffed with those bars of sandpaper, and then painted the same as the doors. I did not do the interiors as I have had paints remain sticky if you pick the wrong paint for the job. These cabs are not sticky on the outside but I wasn't taking chances. They are in good condition and there wasn't any aesthetic reason to paint the interior. We only painted the face of the wood frames of the cabinets but nothing inside that. Ditto poly for the cabinets. *The poly takes minutes to dry but 30 days to cure so I was extra gentle with the boxes and doors. I am having them back in August to touch up all the paint, and to put a 2nd coat of polyurethane on the cabinets. She showed me doors of her own that she had done faux finishes on and how the depth of the paint job is subtly changed by adding more thin coats of poly My sister is now having her kitchen done by them in the same process - different color, and I think they have already sold 3 jobs to people who saw my cabinets at her house. If you look at the back inside of the doors you can see a little bit of grain, but with the 2nd coat of paint, and the dry brushed glaze to add texture, you cannot see any grain at all on the cabinet door fronts. But she painted a couple trial doors in sections with different versions of the above as we worked on the glaze color etc, so we knew going into it what the door fronts were supposed to look like. I had decided to live with painting my old cabs for a while and spend more money on other things in the kitchen and I am really pleased with my decision. I spent 12% of the price of new cabs from a midlevel line and about 4% of the quote for custom cabs. I got 5 painter quotes over time as I was researching this and they ranged from $1800 to $5500 just FYI - it paid to keep asking to find the combination of quality and price. Some of those were for paint alone, no glaze. If I was really going to go the whole route and gut the kitchen I would remove walls and re work the whole functional area of the laundry and bath, and add a shower and storage. I also would turn the sink to the outside wall and put in a new, bigger window above it. That would have meant re-designing the entire area of laundry, bath, kitchen and probably taking up some of our garage storage area. Given my experience level with remodeling (low), my budget considerations, and the economy for resale in our area, I am just too conservative to do that right now. Also - I know this will be like lighting a flame thrower on this forum but I had to draw the line somewhere and after all, cabinets are just boxes to put dishes in. I have other interests and I already knew my priorities were to clean and modernize the space, easy maintenance, and I wanted to be proud to have people come over so I could enjoy my friends and not feel embarrassed about my worn out kitchen. Since I have gotten sensitized to cabinetry and paying attention, I am surprised at the number of high end newer homes that have foiled white cabinets that basically look like crap with the rub marks and mdf chipping. I think new home buyers are really getting ripped off without knowing it - it all looks so pristine when its new. You know Sherwin Williams has colorists that will come to your house to advise you on colors? they charge $75 in advance to come out for an hour or so, but then give you $75 gift certificate to spend at their store. I had one come over and we had a blast together - envisioned the entire house in grays - haha. Spent her $ on our deck stain so it was a good thing for me. She told me that she had painted 3 sets of kitchen cabinets white in renovated homes and to expect the paint to stay whole for about 5-7 yrs. But she didn't polyurethane so I don't know how that will effect it all. I thought this choice suited my needs at this time. Someday I think it would be really cool to have an ultra modern kitchen with blond and stained red wood cabs and surgical stainless countertops with all the appliances built in - but not this time around. I am so running on.. hope that answered you Q about the paint

This is a silly comment. Don't buy a washing machine from Samsung because they make TV's. Don't buy a watch from Apple because they make computers... I can go on and on. Stainmaster makes lots of stuff including cleaning products and even tile itself. None of these Stainmaster products should be discounted simply because the others exist. By your logic you shouldn't even buy Stainmaster carpet because they make tile, instead you should buy carpet from a "specialist" who makes nothing but carpet. Stainmaster doesn't make their grout products and they really have nothing to do with the grout business other than name. Their grout products are made by an Italian company named Litokol and every grout you can find with the Stainmaster name can be purchased from Litokol and they even have the same color codes. When you buy Stainmaster you are getting Litokol. And if you contact Stainmaster for information about their grouts they will redirect you to a company called Tile Doctor who handles 100% of the Stainmaster grout business in the US including distribution. Anyway, long story short is that Stainmaster grout might actually be crap. But it should not be excluded from consideration simply because "Stainmaster makes carpet too." Just plain silly. The correct reason to guide people away from Stainmaster grout would be negative first hand experiences by yourself or others. Or some identifiable flaw with the product itself rather than the name on the product. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I myself am considering Stainmaster grout and would love to get some feedback from people who have experience with it. Anyone? Sorry for my mini rant. People come here for serious advice and I hate to see someone get misdirected with advice that is based on flawed logic. I know from experience my tone in situations like this comes across as harsh but I don't mean it that way. It's just the only way I know how to get points like this across. And I hope it helps people make better decisions.

I dislike urethane grout strongly. I used it once before (in my own kitchen) and will never touch it again. Kerdi is another product that I used to use and have since found much nicer products with far less restrictive setting material choices. I would not use Kerdi unless you have access to Ardex Setting Materials. Then I would be choosing between Ardex's cementious grout or their epoxy. Sounds like your installer will be mixing and matching products from at least three suppliers to build your shower. Why not switch out the waterproofing to Laticrete or Ardex's system and then use that company's setting material and thin-set. Then all the products work nicely together. Call the maker of the tile. Ask them what thin-set you should use. Then look up what;s required by Schluter. You will most likely find the two specs conflict.