Lighter grout is fine, just seal it twice and again once a year, you'll be fine. I like the white mixed with black, I think it opens up the room to have a light color...I would have gone with that but I have an almond tub I had to work around...just couldn't see pulling it together with white...but I used a light grout with this floor I just laid, did it myself in 2 days and the hex shapes are soo much easier to lay down, no spacers needed....but it did take my kids 3 days taking turns to seal it..lots of grout lines! :) They enjoyed doing that..kind of like painting! :) Tara

I am sorry to say that your story is very much like the ones we are trying to educate homeowners about. First and foremost, if he did not provide you with an allowance of the cost of the tile in his budget, then you should not be obligated to pay. The contractor discount is not the issue -- it's about his allowances. If the contract says "furnish and install at $1,540 then that is what you should pay. If there is other language in the contract that allows for changes, then he may have the right to charge extra -- though totally unethical if you did not approve those extra charges. The extra $650 for the "tile membrane" should also be included in the install price. If he did not add it in his original quote but is a needed part of the project, then he should eat that. Overall, your expectations are reasonable. However, if your contract allows the contractor to bill for extras WITHOUT your approval, then you might be liable for the additional charges. If nothing is stated in the contract, it could go either way. I also recommend asking for receipts of additional materials he purchased without your approval. Definitely check with the tile flooring forum for the particulars. Finally, when we price out a job, small or large, we provide one fixed price. Period. The project includes installation and materials. If we miss materials, shame on us. Replacing the entire subfloor would depend on the age, tile, etc. Those are unknowns for any contractor until the area is exposed. When the types of changes you describe are required, we will issue a "change order" for final approval and signature. Nothing is done until the homeowner signs off. Here is a link that might be useful: Hafer Construction, Inc.

1) First up, don't install the hardwoods yet. Three reasons: a) Find out from the manufacturer of the intended hardwoods if cabinets can be installed on top of them or if the floor should be installed around the cabinets. We're installing a floating hardwood floor, and we were told in no uncertain terms not to install the kitchen on top of the floor because it would cause a "pinch point" where the floor could not expand/contract naturally because it was pinned in place by the weight of the cabinet/counter/sink-full-of-water. That apparently can cause terrible buckling in the floor. If you should not be installing cabinets over your floors, you'd need to know the final cabinet layout before these floors go in. b) Since you are redoing your kitchen, you may end up wanting to widen doorways or open a wall or whatever. You want to lay the floor AFTER these changes are made, or you'll have weird-looking floor patches where the moved walls were. c) You want as much work done as possible before the floors go in because every workman, every tool, every job is one more opportunity for your floors to be damaged. You can protect the floors after they go in, but it's still better to have your framing, electrical, plumbing, insulation, and drywall done before the floors go in. 2) This is related to number one, but don't do ANY expensive work until you have a complete plan for what is going in your kitchen. Down to which lights and where, which size cabinets are going where, etc. What trim, etc. A kitchen remodel is like dominoes -- if one of the first tiles is not placed correctly, the rest can't fall the way you want them to. It is very costly -- in time and money -- to fix an early domino that was placed rashly, and anything you feel like you're gaining by just getting SOMETHING done now will be lost a hundredfold several weeks from now when you have to undo it after a lot of stuff has been installed over it. I really can't stress this enough: No plan? NO work. I know it's really difficult, but try not to let your urgency to restore order dictate what you actually do. You will thank yourself later. 2) As everybody else is saying, argue with your insurance for more money. 3) Start googling and pinteresting and find some inspiration pictures of kitchens you love. Get at least five, but more is better. Then sit down and figure out what are the common threads running through the pictures and how those might be put into your new kitchen. Gardenweb can help you brainstorm about this if you post your inspiration pictures. As you pull pictures, make sure you are going in a direction that fits with the architecture/style of the rest of your house. It doesn't need to be a perfect match to the rest of the house, but it should be compatible. (For example, our place is rustic Spanish-style. I like more clean, simple, and modern places. So for my kitchen, I went with more of the Spanish-revival art deco inspiration pictures -- not incongruous with our building, but also not incongruous with what I like.) 4) Concurrently with fighting your insurance company and looking for inspiration pictures you like, get gardenweb started working on a layout for your space. Post: a) a floor plan of the entire floor of your house where the kitchen is (not just a floor plan of the kitchen -- we need to consider traffic flow, so we need to see where the kitchen is in relation to other rooms in the house) b) pictures of the space (this helps with visualizing things that aren't clear on the floor plan) c) the details of who uses this kitchen and how and what features you like in a kitchen Make sure to include measurements of everything on the floor plan and preferably have the floor plan on graph paper with a 1 sq foot = 1 square scale. 5) Set up a functional kitchenette space in another room so you don't go bonkers in the meantime and you minimize the impulse to make rash, expensive decisions out of frustration. My husband had an old Ikea dresser, and Ikea sells glass tops for their dressers for $30. I put dishes in the dresser drawers, and we use the glass top as a counter top. I bought a $50 hot plate to go on our "counter," and we already had a mini fridge and a microwave. It's not perfect, but we can still eat sort of normally, and it works.

For most vinyl windows, they are the same product, just with or without a nail fin and a different size. He could be steering you away from new construction because its more difficult and time consuming. While the price obviously reflects the extra time/labor, it doesn't reflect the profit that COULD have been made doing a second replacement job in the same time span as one new construction job. Installers generally don't love them unless they are diverse in what they do, ie: installing windows today, siding tomorrow, roofing another day, etc, but even at that, replacements are typically less headaches and an "in and out" install. The other, more sincere and helpful reason for pushing you away from new construction could simply be that you really dont need it, and you can save a bunch of money by going with replacement. Substantial rot, existing leakage, and sensitivity to any loss of glass area are the main reasons to go with new construction. You will find a lot of companies that push heavily one way or the other because that is just how they sell, but it should really depend on the individual circumstances so that you can weigh options for your situation. For you, given that you are having both the interior and exterior finishes already removed (siding and woodwork), it does simplify that new construction install so it becomes a more viable option IMO even if you didnt have any of the issues above.