Your best bet is to grout the accent first, making sure to leave the joint that runs directly above and below it, open to be grouted when you grout the field tile. If you tape anything off during this first part of it, just tape the end of each perpendicular grout joint where it runs up to the accent. The border joint you can clean out with a utility knife after you're done grouting. Once the accent is grouted, let it dry over night, and then tape off the edges of it, being careful not to let it run off and cover part of the border joints. In the case of the pencil liner, just put a liece of tape over each joint in the liner, and then take a utility knife (with a new blade for a crisp clean cut) and cut off the excess tape, off the edge of the liner. Then you grout the field, pull the tape, and WAA LAA! :-) Matter of fact, I'll be doing that tomorrow myself, on a kitchen backsplash I just did for a friend-- black grout in the accent stripe, and a tan grout called chamois for the tumbled stone field.

Bill, Removed all floor planks and installed plywood, glad we chose that option. Will begin the Kerdi application this week. Question: Can I Redguard my niches (2) and Kerdi the rest of the shower or do you advise against that? I am afraid of all the cuts necessary when waterproofing the niches with Kerdi. My concern is them working together (Kerdi & Redguard). If I can Redguard the niches would I waterproof the niches first then apply the Kerdi? Please let me know what you suggest is the best approach. Thanks again for your help.

Blondelle, it's the edge meeting at right angles. I've got a few of those - a couple are on half-tiled walls, so I've got to go around the corner *and* finish off nicely on the top edge (and top corner). Then there are a couple of corners that also transition from half-height to full-height in the tub/shower. The "cuarto de cana" (quarter round) and "angulo cuarto de cana" (quarter round corner - can't do the tildes!) pieces, along with some bullnose, would solve the problem for me, but I'm not sure I can get those pieces for my preferred tile (and possibly not even for my less-preferred tile) in time for work to start on 9/29. Bill, I understand how to use bullnose to finish off one side of a corner edge and have the other side butt into it... but how do I finish off the top of the corner when it's a half-tiled wall? Do I just miter the bullnose strips along the top? Can I miter the (possibly glass) border tile beneath the bullnose, and then just use the vertical bullnose/butt technique down the rest of the side? (Hope that made sense... I'm just learning this stuff!)

Kendog-- As to the first two choices, I think either one would aork aestheitcally speaking. It would really be a matter of which look YOU like best. We're planning to use pencil rail around our niches as well as above and below the stone and glass liner. Would it look best with pencil around the window as well or could we just overlap the tile there? I would NEVER just overlap the tiles. Being you're going to use the pencil liner for trimming the niche, I don't think it would look out of place if you were to trim out the window as well. The pencil trim has a higher profile than the tile. Should all of it be cut down at the back to make it more flush with the tile if we use it to cover the edge where the tile meets the wall? No-- it's MADE to have that kind of protruding profile. Trim will be needed on the opposite wall where the half wall ends or maybe we could try to bullnose this with a router? The color of the tile edge nearly matches the color of the tile face. Nearly isn't close enough. Either it's exact, or it's not good enough. If you'd rather not use the pencil liners there, I'd use one of Schluter's bullnosing strips. as for the curb, you could always use a marble threshold, thereby elliminating the need for bullnose. Not sure about yours, but most curbs, after backerboard and tile, are about 5 1/2" wide, and a 6" wide threshold set flush to the tile on the outside of the curb, will give you just enough of an overhang on the inside to provide for a nice drip edge. This will do a couple of things for you. First, it'll provide another layer of protection for the curb. Secondly, it'll provide for a nice flat surface for the shower door to sit on, and third, it looks alot nicer than two back to back bullnose pieces. Like this: The floor is about 18 square feet. Do you think it would work well if we cut our wall tile into 4 inch squares to use for the floor? Could we just sand the edges to make them smooth or would we need to use a router? You COULD cut them down, but if the floor isn't perfectly flat, you could end up with uncomfortable edges under your feet. Again, unless the face and edge of the tile look exactly the same, you don't want to use ANY kind of abraiding process (router, sand paper, grinder, polishing wheels) that will show in the finished product. Our tile is rectified porcelain and we'd like to use 1/16 grout lines if possible. If it's rectified, that shouldn't be a problem.