I would absolutly follow Mongo's advise that he posted above on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 22:31. Ditra is put under all kinds of stone and ceramic. As I understand it, it is a decoupling membrane that helps prevent shearing (horizontal) movements from cracking the tile. The subfloor and joist deflection issues help with preventing vertical movement that can also crack the tiles. How I understand it from the Ditra instructions is that, depending on the subfloor, you select the appropriate thinset to lay the Ditra. Then you lay the tile on the Ditra using appropriate recommended thinset. The orange will be completely covered. It will raise the floor a bit (1/4"?) more because the Ditra has a dimension to it. It is not recommended to be used for tiles smaller than 2" because of the waffle shapes. I bought the appropriate thinset that Schluter recommended at my HIGH END tile shop. It was expensive but a gem to work with. I have never used low end thinset and don't plan to. I have linked the site that makes Ditra. Look it over very well. There are great illustrations on how it works either on this site or others. When I did my floor (first time floor tiler) I used it and, while I took part of it up to get the lumps out, I thought it went well. The beautiful jobs of tiling by Bill V, and Mongct are all on top of Ditra, I believe. Here is my DH adding extra joists 2x8's to our under qualified 21"oc floor. Now it is 9-10" oc: Here is after I put down the (specific recommendation from Bill V.) underlayment of plywood onto the subfloor that was existing, and thick and newly re-enforsed. The only mistake I made was I snapped lines for the grid every 4" instead of the 6" that Bill stated. My mistake, but was not a problem for my DS to do:) Next came my warming floor system, stratigically laid out and planned to the hilt using drawing after altered drawing to get it to all work out. I am proud that I am only 8" short: Here is the floor with the self leveling compound being poured. It has a plastic lath that I put over the wires. I was recommended by the Moderate End tile store where I was going to buy my warming system. I changed my mind because I wanted 240v. But I had the lathe and I then read a tutorial over on the JB forum about using the lathe, so is used it in my installation. So: the BillV recommended underlayment, warming wire and 2 thermostats (1 is laying there not hooked up, as a backup down the road if needed), plastic lathe stapled closely, primer, self leveling compound: If you want to do self leveling compound read Staceyneil's thread on the topic from several years ago, I think it is in the bathroom forum. Here is my Ditra, set with the recommended thinset. After this picture was taken, I did take out some areas, about a foot square, in several places and reset them. I did this because there were large lumps, and I'm a 60yo lady with not as much strength as I used to have. So the thinset was uneven in a few spots. You can see it here. Not all of the lumps needed taking out but several were just too high. When I took it up and reset it it was fine! At this point you can seal the seams with Kerdi tape if you want to water proof it. I was going to do that :( but I forgot!!! If you are installing Ditra in a bathroom, don't forget:) Here I am setting my tile in the pattern I've chosen. Mongo was taken aback when I posted this because I turned the pattern on him :) He had initially helped me plan this out in a 90 degree angle. After it had been all laid and grouted with Spectralock epoxy grout: I post this to help you see the process and that it isn't difficult. The difficulty seems to be when people don't want to make adjustments with installations. There are a lot of people using this stuff. Edited to add: Please correct me if I am incorrect in anyway. This is how I installed my floor and I may have made an error either in the installation or my description. Here is a link that might be useful: The Schluter Site. This post was edited by enduring on Sat, Mar 23, 13 at 12:47

I'm glad to hear that the LED lights are working for you. It sounds like you have a much bigger space than we do, with only 2 more lights. I think this was perhaps our biggest mistake -- just too many of these lights. (As I mentioned, I was worried that LEDs wouldn't put out enough light). Maybe if we had only installed 4 of them, the amount of light would be ok. To reduce the number to 4 at this point would require completely re-placing the lights and rewiring. I wonder also if the increased number of lights in our smaller space is amplifying the effect of the flickering? i.e. maybe it wouldn't be noticeable if the lights were further apart? The housing and dimmer switch we have are both on the compatible list on the Cree website. All 7 of the lights are connected to the same dimmer switch. So I'm not sure what the problem is. When they are on at full power, they don't buzz or flicker. We had friends over yesterday and at full power they thought the lights looked great. (It wasn't too bright for them). Then I dimmed them and they didn't think the buzzing was too bad. They also didn't really notice much flickering. But then I started waving my arms around and they were shocked. The strobe effect when the lights were dimmed made my kitchen seem like a disco! Cbjmidwood, when you dim your lights and wave your arms around, is there any strobing?

I have a 50's ranch and about the only thing i would change is the layout of the kitchen.I'd like to have a big window in the kitchen with the sink below it,and have the kitchen be one big room instead of kitchen and dinette area.We do have a formal DR though. I don't like the popcorn ceilings either,but like the op said,that's an easy fix. I have and will take shower curtains over shower doors any time,hate the doors,and my shower curtains don't cling.They have magnets on the liner,and the outer curtain is soft and flowy,but not into the tub. I'm so glad when we got this house,that we got a ranch and not a 2 story,they're (2 story or more) aare the pits as we age. I need and have garden space also,so you may want to consider the yard size. We have 1 bathroom also and it's served us well all these 46 years with the 4 kids and others. Don't get wrapped up in the unecessary things,look for good bones,and keep in mind what it is you want,cosmetics VS needs etc. Good luck Kathi

With large format tile and the modified thinset, there was a pretty good chance that the thinset had not created a strong enough bond where the Kerdi would be damaged when the tile was removed. Without a doubt, float out the wall prior to continuing. A good foundation will improve your chances of success. I've used Versabond quite a bit over Kerdi, but I don't use it with large format tile because the tiles are so large. Modified thinsets need air exposure to completely dry and develop a complete bond. Thinset sandwiched between a large format tile and Kerdi will not see much air, especially the thinset away from the perimeter of the tile. If you're using Versabond, I'm guessing you bought it at Home Depot? Custom's unmodified thinset is Customblend. I'm not a big fan of Customblend right out of the bag, but if you have to use it, I'd recommend picking up a bag of portland cement and adding a margin trowel or two of portland cement to each batch of Customblend thinset that you mix up to fortify it a bit. Definitely change to a larger notched trowel to apply thinset to the wall, and definitely burn in and back butter the tile prior to setting it. It will help immensely with coverage and adhesion. The gap under the bottom row of tile? It depends on how inconsistent the floor/wall junction is as you go around the room. If it's wonky, with the floor already tiled? I'll toss out rough numbers for this example: Let's say your tiles are 16" square and you had a 3/8" gap in some spots between the bottom of the wall tile and the top of the floor tile, and in other spots they touched. Your best bet may be to strike a level line across the four shower walls about 15-5/8" above the highest spot on the perimeter of the floor. With a 3/8" variance in elevation around the perimeter of the floor, that line will be 16" above the lowest spot on the perimeter of the floor. You then scribe the bottom edge of each tile so it conforms to the floor tile, so when the tile is set in place the top edge of the tile will be on the line you drew on the walls. Some tiles may fit without having to be cut at all. Others may have up to 3/8" taken off their bottoms. Others may vary, you'll have to trim a bit here, a bit more there, to follow the contour of the pebble floor tile. A pain? For sure. But that'll solve the uneveness of the wall-floor intersection, and with the top edge of your bottom course of wall tile now being spot on perfect level around the entire shower, you've created the proper foundation upon which to tile the upper walls. An overall generic lesson? First thing I do in any shower is fix the framing. With square and plumb framing I get square, plumb, and flat backer board and plumb and square wall corners. With good backer board I get a good tile installation. Fight the framing at the start and that's the only battle you'll have to fight. Everything else will follow smoothly. Good luck!