Congrats on beating the Big C. I too am a cancer survivor, but mine was one that is rarely ever completely gone, so I just stubbornly stay one jump ahead of the obits by planning new notions for my GH. If I'm planning on someting new, I HAVE to be alive to pull it off. LOL! Okay: Height. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in Z-7, wouldn't summer heat be more an issue than winter cold? If so, the the higher the roof, the easier it will be to keep your GH cool in summer. If you get your side purlins up to at least 8 ft., you could stretch a piece of plastic across the entire interior of your GH in winter, to create an insulating air pocket between it and the roof, and concurrently, prevent a lot of of the warm air from rising above that "dropped ceiling." Just a thought, but when building your own from scratch, you can add a lot the GH mfg. never seem to think about.

What a mess. Sorry for your troubles, these things just shouldn't happen. Here's what I advise you to do: Write down the original problem, then each blunder that followed. Have it ready in an email. No emotion. Just the details. 1) This is what we ordered. 2) This is what was installed. 3) This was the problem with the installation. 4) This is what was done in an attempt to repair the problem (vinegar, stain, paint). 5) Is there a way to repair what has been done so we can have what we wanted in Step 1)? 6) If there isn't, what is the best course of repair so you can be made whole? (Full grout removal and replacement?) 7) Is their an alternative course of repair? (Mask it with Aquamix Grout Colorant?) Now one thing, you certainly don't want to use the AquaMix colorant if you don't like any of the offered colors. Call Custom's tech department. Ask the tech for his email address and while you are on the phone, fire off the email to him so he has the details in writing. I've even emailed photos to techies whole on the phone with them. Have your discussion, and have the tech reply to you in writing via an email. If the tech can't assure you that repairs can be made to the grout "as is", then have him write that the only way to get a proper installation is for the grout to be removed and replaced. The goal is to get specific answers back from him in writing. Some tech guys can suffer from the "I don't know" syndrome, and it's fine if they do...but they still have to recommend a final course of action. The point-of-view I use when dealing with tech support is that if they can't assure me that everything is okay, well, then it's not okay. And if it's not okay, the best course of action is usually full removal and replacement. With it being replaced, then you know it's okay. Your do have a few choices. One would be to have the grout removed and then new grout installed. That would "make you whole" in terms of you getting the installation that you originally wanted. One of the risks with that is when removing the grout, sometimes the tile edges can get nicked here and there. Any damage to the tile can just make this whole experience sink further into the abyss. Small nicks to the tile might not be a huge issue if the tile is a through-body color tile, ie, the color of the "inside" of the tile is similar in color to the surface color. An alternative repair, and it is a "repair" versus "making you whole", can be attacked on two levels, but the overall "repair" is using a grout colorant over the grout you have. Not a grout stain, but an epoxy-based grout colorant. I don't use colorants often, but when I do it's Aquamix Grout Colorant. AquaMix is a product from Custom, so it'd be right up the tech's alley in terms of a product that he could recommend. But again, you have to like one of their offered colors to want to use the product. One level of repair depends on the "paint added to the grout". I'd get an answer from Custom Tech on this. Is the grout okay? Will the paint prevent the epoxy colorant from adhering to the grout, etc? Will the stain used create adherence issues? If the messed up grout is a concern, would a proper repair be for then to remove the polluted grout from those sections. Install new cementitious grout. Then the grout colorant can go over the entire floor? It's difficult because your proper repair is removal of the grout and installing new grout. But the nature of that repair can cause damage to the tile...and sure, damaged tiles can be pulled and replaced. But does your C/H have the ability to carry out a repair like that without causing more problems? Your interaction now is pretty much between you and your contractor/handyman. Sure, your tile guy did the installation. But once your C/H jumped in with the paint and stain, he sort of absolved the original tile guy of all his installation sins. The fact that your C/H followed bogus advice from the tile store versus calling the grout manufacturer's tech department for repair advice, that's all on your C/H. He can certainly blame the sales guy at the tile store for giving him bogus advice. But that's not a concern to you. Let the C/H argue with the sales guy about that. Only your C/H is a concern to you, he's the one you hired, he's the one who really buggered up the installation. He should have done what you're going to do...and what it says on every bag of grout to do...if you have problems, call tech support. Sorry for the wordy reply. This is one of those cases where I was interrupted by several phone calls while typing, etc...ramblin' man...oh yes oh yes oh yes...oh nooooo.... Custom Customer Support 800-272-8786 Custom Technical Services 800-282-8786 Good luck.

Here's several sources of irregularities in a tile installation: Unless the tile installer shimmed out the backing to compensate for any wavy studs, you will have a wavy backing, and the tiles will follow the waves ... occasionally one will hit the crest of a wave just right and you have a corner like you see. 2 - With a square-edged tile all the tile installer has to do is wipe ALL the grout off the face of the tiles and it's all even. With a rounded edge the visible grout width will vary depending on how much grout is wiped away from the rounded edge to reveal the joint. That's part of the "charming hand-made" look. Had they known that you wanted machine-like precision in the grout lines they may have been able to warn you that the rounded edges of that tile are not conducive to precise grout joint appearance unless you want to pay for someone to use calipers and Q-tips on all the joints. 3 - Tile size variation depending on where they were in the kiln. It's tiny, but it adds up over the course of several rows of tile. 4 - Those spacers are not "machined" they are cast or pressed into the clay before it's fired, and subject to shrinking. They are a help to the tile setter, not any guarantee of absolute precision. ---------------- As for the spacers, unless your walls were perfectly squared and ceiling perfectly level, some of the joints probably needed to be widened a scooch so the tiles would line up properly with the tiles on the other wall. the easy way to do this is to slip a spacer into the joint and twist it. My tile installer (and contractor) had to compensate for a 1 inch difference between one side of the alcove's rear wall and the other. He did it by starting about three rows up from the rim of the tub and widening the grout gaps a tiny bit on the high side, tapering back to normal on the low side. It looks great, but it took him the better part of three days to do all the measuring, marking, and scooching, then letting each couple of rows set up so he wouldn't mess it up with the next rows.

I'd vote for the basketweave (and not just because I used the floral on the wall in my kitchen). Mosaics generally aren't slippery - the grout lines make them grippier than a lot of large(r) format tiles. I have these crappy white 6x6's in every bathroom in this house (ugh) and you could like to kill yourself on those with wet feet. The issue with the floral is that onyx can be fragile. I got a pretty decent lot, but I also hand inspected every single sheet, removed the "uglies" and used two sheets to replace the rejected pieces. The marble also has some very distinct gray (which does not appear in your limestone) but does appear in my Corian, so I'm not bothered by it. And yes, I did use bright white grout and no, I would never use traditional white sanded grout on a bathroom floor. At a tile shop you'd likely have more choices in the white/cream family. I just think that overall the basketweave is a stronger choice for your space. If you got a very grey lot of the floral you'd be even more behind on tile - and stuck with it to boot. Lisa