Monica, please tell your husband I am a great fan of his work. His tiling looks fantastic - those corners are just perfect! He's obviously got a great deal of skill and talent. (Try not to swell his head *too* much... ;-)) Wow, now I've got to decide whether to use bullnose at the corners or just miter them... (The bullnose is expensive, but I bet the miter labor is too.)

Ok I have travertine in both my son's bath (he's 4) and my own. So here's my experience after a year and a half. I color my hair (ok you have to in alaska...the darkness fades it if you aren't black haired) and I color it red :oP (that is my real color) Ok i'm talking about that too much LOL Anyhoo, I'm not a tidy colorer and I shower to rinse it out. I have travertine in the room and have slopped color on the floor. It takes a swipe to clean it, and if it leaves a spot, I've once used an alchol pad to swipe over that (I think it was a stridex face cleaner). I have no stains on the travertine on the main floor, nor on the marble counters nor on the travertine shower floor or ceiling. My son's bath is travertine and granite. Not a stain on it and he's not a tidy child :) Grape cough syrup, benedryl, a very nasty cherry medicine (he's not well) and they all wipe up. No stains at all. Travertine is not uneven, nor should any stone be if you buy gauged tile (the most common if you're not buying 99 cent tile). A tile guy should have no issues but ask if they've done stone. I have no stains on the grout either :) And it's just grout (not epoxy). We don't baby our home...I haven't even resealed though I was thinking maybe it's time since we're moving for the winter, but our travertine looks as fab as the day we put it in and I'd use it again in a new york second :)

I adore travertine. I have it (tumbled) on my kitchen backsplash and (honed) in a seldom used front entry. As much as I love it, I chose to do a travertine look porcelain tile for my bathroom floor and am using the real thing on the walls. I personally would be very nervous about using it on the bathroom (and kitchen) counter. I sealed the heck out of the kitchen backsplash and nothing that has splattered there has stained. But with all that a bathroom counter endures...I don't know. I'm afraid I'd just be too worried to enjoy it. I have some sort of stain on my honed entry floor. It got there when workers were in and out during remodel. Someone kicked up the brown paper that was protecting it :( I haven't tried a poltice yet but a natural stone cleaner hasn't removed it. The floor was sealed with a water based natural stone sealer. Monica

thanks to all who have posted so far, especially Eric. We can probably save/budget down the road for a kitchen redo, or do part of it ourselves. Additions would be a little harder for us except finish work (floors, tile, etc. Can do drywall even but would need to find time to do it). What that kitchen has is a U shaped layout, not too bad except there are overhanging cabinets between a small dining/family space and the kitchen. It's a counter/pass through kind of setup where someone can sit at stools and talk with the person in the kitchen....except the cabinets hang down so the person in the kitchen has to look under them. We would likely tear those out and relocate the stovetop to the perimeter wall and make that pass through an island. Then that entire space could become kitchen/dining. It is possible we could still move out a wall on that (kitchen) side of the house down the road too, we are in Hawaii so all the construction costs are much, much higher than mainland. So jealous of all the posters here who can put on a large extension for less than 50K. Plan A or Plan B will cost us about the same. We don't plan to sell and move anytime soon, but should we need to we're leaning toward sq. footage instead of just extending current bath and upgrading the kitchen. Our neighborhood is about 20 years old so people are beginning to redo those rooms as the fixtures and appliances are ageing. We redid all the appliances about three years ago with stainless finishes, new faucet/sink, and redid the countertop Corian, so the kitchen is livable - just need to clear out some clutter and make smarter usage on available storage space. We could paint or restain the cabinet doors to freshen it up. A few neighbors are creating the "big bang" kitchen now but I'm not certain a 70K upgrade will improve the value that much as a new neighborhood is planned about 5 miles away within the next couple of years. Would we love to live in a "WOW" kitchen, of course. But as with most people we have to make a decision on where it is best to spend the money for now. We could feasibly also add on a 2nd story in future years, but we prefer the single story and if we age-in-place as planned, the new bath will include wide accesses and no-curb shower.