Crack is Whack

During the tail end of our kitchen reno, one of the finishing details once we got the counters installed and back splash tiled was caulking all the corners.  There is something about our house and caulk... that no matter what kind of caulk we use we start with something like this:

but after a few months have this:

and this...

annndddd this.....

I'm guessing you get the hint. IT CRACKED!!!!!!! Which is frustrating to say the least and this has been bothering me for a while now.  I feel like no matter what we use it always ends up cracking.  Usually small projects like this I tend to put on the back burner until randomly one day, usually when I have 1,000 other things to do, say "hey I should be helping the hubs' with fill in the blank but I'm having a "squirrel" moment and I'm going to caulk the kitchen!"

Like I said earlier, we've tried almost every type of caulk and nothing seemed to be working.  After doing a little research at my local Menards I decided to try LOCTITE PL S40 Polyurethane Sealant Window, Door and Siding Caulk.  It's engineered to form long-lasting seals as well as expand and contact with the material it's used with.  

I started out by using green Frog Tape to tape off the area that I wanted to caulk and with caulk gun in hand, locked and loaded I got started.  

Mind me I have never used this type of caulk before, but holy crap this stuff was a pain in the ass to use.  It says to use gloves to avoid skin contact.  I tried using gloves and the only thing that happened was that the gloves got stuck trying to spread the caulk, thus making a bigger mess...so off came the gloves.  By the time the project was done I had caulk on my hands, which took a week to get off fully, on my camera, my phone, the stove, the counter, the sink faucet, door handles, clothes, hair, remote, keyboard among probably many other places in my house that I haven't noticed yet!

Another thing was that this caulk was super difficult to squeeze out with the caulk gun.  I'm not the weakest person in the world and I would use every ounce of muscle in my arms and only get out a drop.  I know I had cut the hole big enough on the tube so the only thing I can think of is that I had a dud of a tube of caulk...unless this is how difficult this type of caulk really is to get out??

What felt like forever later, I was done and able to start pulling off the Frog Tape!!  It was awesome...It was nerve wrecking (like an unveiling of artwork from behind a sheet)...but it turned out great!

.

..and presto I went from this:

to this awesomeness:  

This project was another one of those projects that I put off for a while just because I thought it was going to be a pain in the ass and I was right, it was... but in the end it was totally worth it!!