WALT MASON felt he could not vacuum the aged tile countertop one more time. The kitchen, which had been remodeled in the 1950s, had two-inch-square tiles with a checkerboard border that trapped crumbs like nobody’s business. “Wiping the countertop did nothing,” Walt says—hence the need to vacuum.
Mason shares the 1912 house with his husband, Sam Zinner, a physician. The two had already
