It is a rather abrupt transition. Has a little more thought gone into the original design and layout this could have been averted.

My first question...is there any cement board behind the tile, or is it all greenboard?

Do realize that in the January 2006 revision of the IRC building code, greenboard was prohibited as a tile substrate in wet areas like tub surrounds and showers.

Back to your original question.

Go to the store where you bought the tile and look at borders. You can incorporate a border or frame around the field tile an it should soften the transition from tile to drywall.

There are a few areas where the transition will still be difficult...but that tends to occur with poorly designed installations.

Alternatives include a wood trim border, a tiled border, or if though of ahead of time, Schluter's transition and/or termination strips.

Mongo

Thank you for your help Mongo. I will go to the tile store today to see what we can add to the edges.
You are right, there is no cement board behind the tile - it's all greenboard. Do you anticipate problems down the road? Could we add some sort of sealer on the tiles and grout to help?
I went to the web site for Schluter's transition strips to check it out. That would have been a good solution. "If only".
Thank you so much for your help.
Janen

DOES YOUR TILE HAVE BULLNOSED ENDS AVAILABLE? THAT IS WHAT YOU NEED.

Because these things seem to go together like The Patriots and Super Bowl trophies I'll ask the next question. If you watched any of the shower tile installation, did they use premixed "mastic" straight from a bucket, or did it start as a dry powder then get mixed with a liquid to stick the tiles onto the walls?

Tile and grout are pourous materials. No amount of sealer will ever change that. As such, water will get behind the tile and thru the glue that holds the tile and onto whatever substrate (in your case greenboard) you've got. Greenboard is simply sheetrock with a special paper facing. It will eventually fall apart with repeated wettings. Like the kind you get in a shower. That's also the problem with "mastic". Premixed mastic is super easy to work with, but it's water solluble. Dry mixed thinset sets by chemical reaction, mastic dries by air.

I'm sure Mongo will be back, but my guess is he's probably working. I'm also guessing that your not real comfortable with what he left you thinking, so I figured I'd give you some rudimentary info to hopefully answer some questions. Unfortunately, if that shower gets heavy use that greenboard's going to fail. How long will that take, I don't know. A quick trip over to the John Bridge forum and a search using greenboard and/or failure will get you plenty of reaffirming info...unfortunately most of it won't make you real happy.

What would I do in your shoes? With a little help from our resident consigliere's Mongo and Bill V (I'm sure they'd both be more than happy to send you the IRC codes forbidding greenboard), call the tile guys and let them know their work is substandard and you expect it fixed. When they protest...and they will...hand them your documentation and have them fix it.

Thank you spanky for taking the time to explain the issue for me.. Yes, now I'm starting to feel SICK. My problem is much worse than I thought. Thank you though for enlightening me.
Janen