Wall color isn't all that important to me unless it is a very intense color. My light-flooded bedroom used to be the darkest forest green and it was so dismal and dusty looking! But for the most part I think neutral walls look great; whether they're more beige or green or gold doesn't seem to matter too much. My neighbor just painted her kitchen one shade lighter of a terra cotta and I can't see the difference (but it makes her happy and that's great!) In general, I've found johnmari's rule about "light walls for light rooms and dark walls for dark rooms" to be the only rule that's really worth following. I also don't mind furniture that is out of style. Most of the people I know have those slouchy leather sofas and loveseats. They are not fashionable but they are well made, extremely comfortable and stand up to kids and pets. In a room with the right lighting, floors, scale, artwork, etc. it just doesn't seem to matter. I really don't notice details so much as the overall scale of things. I don't care if things go together as long as they are not screaming at me. I guess I have more of an impressionistic outlook. I have a tile floor in my entry that I don't like. It was put in by the POs and is just not me. But, I don't really care. I guess my rule is that if I can't change something without spending a whole lot of time and energy and money on it, I'll just ignore it. (But as someone noted earlier, if I had a money tree I would probably be pickier.) I have oak cupboards that are probably dated and tile counters but they are all in good shape and very functional, so they don't bother me. My appliances don't match, but in a way that is a good thing - the dishwasher blends in with the cabinets rather than matching the fridge and calling attention to itself. I used to feel that lighting was one of those unimportant details that only designers fussed about, but I have since discovered how easy it is to change a space just by adding a lamp or turning down the dimmers, so I've done a 360 on this issue. There are many things that do bug me, but you don't want to hear about those :-)

There is a house for sale by us that was renovated 7 years ago, with pink carpets washed oak and very 80's-early 90s looks. The seller feels they are selling an updated house but the buyers think it needs to be gutted. Some people are stuck in the past at the time of their lives they were happiest. Or, someone aspired to have a certain look and could not afford it at the time. They forgot to update their wishlist when they finally had cash. The sad thing is a person with a lot of money/huge house and poor taste has more chances to make mistakes and the mistakes are in a larger format.

It's why I buy my canning supplies in bulk. I seldom use the commercial canning spice mixes, but there are a couple that I buy, simply because I like their blends. They're not only non-existent on the shelves in off seasons, but particularly in the rush of the typical canning season. I had this discussion with my local hardware store, when I went in looking for seeds. Gardeners are already needing some cool weather crop seeds now, and they wait until nearly May. They didn't stock up on their canning supplies until almost September, and I had already worked up nearly eight hundred pounds of garden produce. Buyers need to be cognizant that people can year-round, and whomever is savvy enough to keep a constant basic supply will be the bird who gets the worm. Serious home canners and preservers learn early on to prepare for outages.

I appreciate all the advice. As I mentioned, the floor is completely covered right now so I can't take any photos. And it's covered for a reason, so I don't want to pull all the cardboard off just to take some photos. When the time comes to pull it off and address this, if I'm still unsure about what to do I'll post photos and would appreciate your input. Even though there's no definitive answer, lots of great advice and things to think about and weigh. One thing I'm still not clear on is how much of a mess this is going to make. I know to start their going to have to break some tiles up. But once they get a few tiles out can they pry the rest of the tiles off in one piece or will they have to bust everything up to get it off? And if they remove the tile, will the float below be damaged to the point it has to be redone or can they just patch up some trouble spots where there is a lot of damage? The aftermath is part of the decision for me. If it's possible to cleanly remove the tiles without making a giant mess or destroying the float then I will most likely have them start over using a leveling system. If this is a major demo job with a ton of mess and dust then I'd be less inclined to go through with that.