Thanks all. Hose Vixen -- I do love that little powder room, had I to do it over I might have been more creative with the tile work, but at that pooint i was still figuring out how to do all this stuff. The tumbled marble really does have a warm look and feel to it, much more so than the image conveys. I wanted to do the master with it but my wife thought it would be to hard to clean and that it would look to masculine. I lost that battle! Mongcot -- 1) Did you put a membrane (6-mil poly or lapped tar paper) between the Durock and the framing? I don't see anything int he photos. We did not put anything between the framing and the wall board. I had intended to, even boght the poly, but it just never happened. i also think it's overkill, we took off the existing original drywall and there were'nt even any water stains behind the areas that showed moisture damage. I did, however, fill all the voids with fiberglass insulation for sound proofing. The shower wall is against my sons room, before you could really hear the shower running, toilet flush and my little AM radio when i listen to the news in the morning. Now you hear almost nothing, glad I did that. With regards to your shower membrane, the 40-mil Oatey? 2) Did you install a deck mud preslope and then put the membrane over the preslope, or is the membrane flat on the subfloor and you did a deck mud preslope on top of the membrane? No preslope. 1/2" plywood floor, 1/4" Hardi Backer (may have been 1/2" and 1/2", don't really remember)then the memberane, then the mud. All the sloping was done in the mud. 3) Where the membrane goes over the curb, you nailed the membrane into the top of the curb. How did you attach the backer board to the inside edge of the curb? Nails or screws into the curb? You can see that the membrane only covers about one third of the curb. I added some wood shims (just enough to give the curb a very slight angle toward the shower) and mortered the HardiBacker curb top down and screwed it as well, trying to keep the screws out of the membreane line. There are new screws on the inside edge of the curb. I figured between the morter, the tile overlapping the curb on the ends and gravity, the curb isn't going anywhere! Oh, and give your helper a promotion! What, he has union representation now? We are a non-union home in a right to work state, meaning he can be fired without cause and with no recourse. He needs to walk a fine line, escpecially with a younger, more trainable staff member coming along soon!!!!!!

If you're talking about the bathroom off the Rumpus room, the only thing I think you really need to do is make it a tiny bit wider. I would bring the bathroom wall out even with the edge of the Rumpus Room's built-in cabinets so that there is a little more "standing room" in front of the toilet and the shower is a little bigger. Then, if window placement will allow you to do so, for the convenience of guests staying in the guest room, you might mirror image the whole bathroom vertically so that the sink (and door) are up close to the guest room and the shower is down by the built-in cabinets. That would save your guests a few steps to reach the toilet in the middle of the night. Now stop obsessing! There ARE only so many ways to arrange a toilet, a shower, and a vanity. LOL! The whole upstairs looks fantastic. Great theater room, nice large play room with plenty of room for a bar sink and fridge and storage of games/toys, a balcony that'll be big enough to actually sit out on to enjoy the view, AND easy access to the unfinished attic! I think you've done good! Now how about having your architect revise the elevation drawings and post those just so we can see them? I'm looking forward to watching you build.

ha, b's mom -- I think of a backsplash because I am a hopeless *mosaic and tile addict*! : ) Guess you haven't seen my daughter's bathroom LOL. It's a riotous yet controlled explosion of Pratt & Larson seconds/overruns that I facemounted on mosaicmount and worked into the design of the entire room. I only have in-process photos, no current photos of it because my daughter is 14 and we don't have a housekeeper, iykwim. Anywhere I can tile I generally try to,and if I find some nice tile at a salvage, I have a tendency to buy it and then figure out where to use it somewhere down the road. It's even happened one or two times : ). I was actually thinking of wainscoting in the room, but I want to find a tile that is the same color as the paint. We actually have some two-or-three-fist-sized rocks of labradorite that we will have cut to make slices to work in somewhere, probably in the shower. I can't cut it because it fractures too easily. I may try to get the fabricator who has sold us the countertop piece to see if he can cut these rocks. I'll try to imagine the room without a backsplash...honestly, I've had bathrooms in other houses without a backsplash and it can work...I'll keep an open mind. I love the mirror frame idea to have that be the reference to the gold floor -- a combination picking up the chrome tone would be cool. Thanks! You know, I could probably even do it myself, I imagine, with a couple of shades of rub-n-buff? After a little observation and practice? And thanks, kp -- I appreciate your vote. I'll find a way to highlight the counter so it doesn't disappear into the wall color. Glad to know that someone else besides me notices through-composed floors! : ) And stinky, I do think the lighting fixture is beautiful, as you say -- once again, found at salvage, but I then searched online and found it at retail back in 2007 for about $200...the shades look like large crystal block ice cubes. The pantry is a combination of Ikea metal-mesh shelving (I like it because it's see-through but much tougher than that plastic-coated'ventilated' shelving with the ridges which I despise (it's just me -- other people may love it but it's like fingernails on a blackboard to me) -- we tried both, solid wood and the metal mesh, and I vastly preferred the metal because I could actually see what was on the higher shelves) and wood* on one wall because we couldn't get the metal in sizes we wanted, and the marmoleum counter. There will also be a mahogany (to match the Ikea Hallarum) sink cabinet and mahogany countertop edging (vintage floor moulding I've stripped and stained to match the Hallarum) as well. I'm completely in love with the marmoleum -- a kind g'webber pointed me in the direction of great wood tints and I've warmed up a light blue (again, salvage) to a joyous spring blue-green. I think if I could live my entire life in the nexus of brown, gray, gold, blue and green I'd be happy : ) *Yes, the wood is a salvage find too, an extremely high grade *new* plywood that we bought scads of random offcuts of...it's a very light off-white maple (I think) plywood, and we had no idea how it got to the salvage but one day we went to the Museum of Contemporary Craft here in Portland and saw the current exhibit on one of my idols, Betty Feves, and lo and behold, all the display stands for her pottery/ceramics were made of *exactly* the same wood! There's no mistaking it! So I'm one degree closer to Betty Feves now! I was thinking just to paint the plywood, but not after we discovered its noble provenance : ) Well, maybe after the vicarious thrill wears off and I want more uniformity in the room...but not now. o.k., just for the fun of it I'll link to the exhibit, just have to spread the Feves gospel wherever I can : ) Here is a link that might be useful: visceral, glorious Betty Feves

Who knew you could paint tile? (obviously several others besides me. LOL) Just back from the hardware store. Blue is going to be painted white. I'll prime the walls white, see how it looks. If I think I'll like it, I'll just paint white (Ive never had a white room) and accessorize with brighter colors. If I don't think I'll like the white, I'll prime grey over that and see what color strikes me when BM opens tomorrow. Mildred, I've got to get this room finished by tomorrow night, since I'm having company tuesday and then out of town for the rest of the week. We'll tear all the tile out in the spring, so as tempting as it is, no sense doing it twice. Thanks all for the advice...I had no idea. :/