Hey Guys, it is so good to read again from all the old timers, that I have learned so much from in the past years. I come here hardly ever anymore, missing the old timers and the old friendly forum. Our garden does not look very good as well these days. Many tropicals have hard time surviving the weather we have been having lately. Most of my time and effort is taken by homeschooling my son (we just started this school year, after a not that good experience in magnet school last year) and chess tournaments (new passion of my son :-) I do wish everybody a great New Year, especially to those who deal with hardships. I would be up for a plant swap. Just to see everybody would be great! Maybe it is the motivation that I am lacking to kick me into the gardening mode again. Veronika J"s new passions: turtles and chess :-)

Well, I am no tile expert, but we just had our bathroom tiled and we had the installer use Spectralock PRO epoxy grout and our tile all had nominal 1/16 inch seams. (He said that for the beveled tile, the seam is closer to 1/8 inch at the widest point -- I think our floor tile was beveled and our wall tile had straight edges so was a true 1/16 inch.) We haven't started using the bathroom yet, but the tile looks great. Sorry, I don't seem to have taken a picture of the finished tile yet!

You will get aprox 50 Square per gallon of Hydro ban if you apply it over Green EBoard or cement Board on the rough side. You will get closer to 60 Square feet of coverage over the smooth side of Green EBoard. Can you measure out the exact square footage and what you plan for a shower base and the walls. The Kerdi Drain is an excellent product but a bit on the pricey side at $130.00 Nobel makes a sweet little adapater piece for a regular drain $12.00 that can give you a liquid tie in point. Contact Laticrete for approval - I spoke just two days back to Eric at Nobel head office and he told me about this greta Nobel product. I have some of those en route as well. Eric is a great guy - email him and he can tell you all about it. I wish he chimed in here from time to time... Eric? Where are you? sales@noblecompany.com JW Here is a link that might be useful: Nobel products for your bathroom renovation

Bill V - THank you - that is all I wanted to know. My gut told me the installers were not at fault with the installation - but I do not have your experience to go from. tuesday - When did I ever mention lawyers or legal or imply I in any way planned to go after the installer?! I said I was giving them the benefit of the doubt because I wasn't sure how they could have known before installing given the nature of the tile. I am still very friendly with the rep who sold me bad door trim. Its business - I was fair and reasonable with her and I will still recommend her because she did everything she could to remedy the situation and it isn't perfect but it is acceptable. Mistakes happen. The other day my dh told me my GC paid me a great compliment when the ice stone fabricator came by to talk about the fabrication he - admittedly - totally messed up. While they waited for me my GC said "L is more educated about building than a lot of homeowners and she knows how things should be, but she is reasonable. If you explain what you can do and are honest with her she will work with you." I am not looking to skewer anyone or get something for less than it is worth - but I do want what I - in good faith - paid for. CA - where I live is a no fault state - but I have no idea what that possibly has to do with ordering an expensive custom tile and receiving defective product? the "free tile" is hardly an "absolute gift" nor is it free. I paid good money for a product I saw in a showroom - I did not receive that product and if I want what I paid for I have to pay thousands of dollars to have the defective stuff ripped out and the new stuff installed. Sorry but I don't see the gift in that. Seaglass - I'm sorry you had a bad experience with Oceanside - that must have been very disappointing. While they appear to be much more responsive in this case I still don't really feel grateful or satisfied because I am still out a lot of money and the responsibility for the defective tile is theirs. My rep is a top dealer for Oceanside and said her experience with them has only been positive. I'm not giving up and will be talking to her on Monday and see what we can do. Cheri - thank you for the kind feedback. I also hesitated over that faucet. One reason I chose it was the huge expanse behind the sink - it begged for a faucet of some substance. I personally do not like any kind of pull-out - integrated or on the side - so I love how the sprayer works. I love the backsplash too - from 10 feet away ;-) If it did not look exactly like mold growing behind the tiles I would probably just deal with it - but something that looks like mold in a kitchen is just not something I want to look at every day while I work at my sink. I splurged on my backsplash because I do not have a window and I wanted something light reflective that would be visually appealing to someone working at the sink - not quite happening the moment.