Something bad happened that actually was a very, very good thing... After following breiaj's instructions to the letter, two of the floor tiles in the bathroom popped up a couple of days later and wouldn't stay stuck. When I pulled them up the rest of the way, I found a leak! If it hadn't been for those tiles unsticking, we wouldn't have found that leak until it did a LOT more damage - like made a big ole mess of the kitchen ceiling. So here's one way in which vinyl tile might actually be BETTER than sheet! A few notes WRT breiaj's instructions... I admit to dropping back to $3.99 paintbrushes because they became unworkable so quickly - the glue would start to dry up in the bristles while we were working and it would become more like a paddle than a brush! We didn't have any problems with bristle loss. 2" flat-ended paintbrushes were just the right size, a wider brush seemed like it would save time but was really more awkward to work with, especially with cut pieces. Don't bother wearing rubber gloves in hopes of keeping your hands clean, they stick to the tile's adhesive and to the adhesive you're spreading on and just generally irritate the crap out of you. :-) The adhesive - Armstrong's anyway - is kind of hard on your hands though, and contrary to the label does not wash off with soap and water! We ended up using a "painter's wipes" product we had on hand to clean up our hands about every hour because we would get too sticky to work effectively, and our fingertips were pretty raw and sore afterward. Even though it costs a bit more it's a lot easier to work with the smaller containers of adhesive using this brush-on method, because the bucket gunks up something awful. If you're laying more than about 100 square feet, seriously consider coughing up for the vinyl tile cutter (homedepot.com has one for about $50, or you can rent a superduper heavy-duty one for about the same for a weekend)... scoring and snapping with a utility knife sucks after a while, it's slow and hard on your hands. Make sure you have a comfortable utility knife no matter what though, and a LOT of blades. Stanley makes a really nice knife in their FatMax line, with a rubber-cushioned handle. A jamb or undercut saw ($15) makes dealing with those door jambs SO much easier than trying to cut the tile around them! We removed the baseboards; we were going to replace them with vinyl cove but the damn stuff just would not cooperate so we patched the baseboards with wood filler galore and put them back, and it looked SO much neater than butting the tiles up to the baseboards. deeje, I've checked around with several manufacturers of vinyl tile and the biggest deal WRT moisture is not to slop around too much water when you mop - contrary to popular belief, you don't need a gallon bucket full of near-boiling water and some vile chemical to get a floor clean! Try a well-squeezed-out sponge or terrycloth/microfiber mop instead of a sopping string or rag mop instead. Those microfiber cleaning cloths fit on Swiffer handles really well, if like me you are too cheap to buy the Swiffer cloths. :-) ctaylors6, the instructions in the Cryntel box agree with the Lowes guy - wash well-secured vinyl very well, rinse well, allow to dry thoroughly. I'd use something like TSP that would destroy any gloss on the existing floor. Our vinyl was trashed so we couldn't leave it, so I can't speak to the adhesive method on top of vinyl. We still haven't gotten the kitchen floor laid down yet. We had to tear out some of the subfloor and replace it, and then do a lot of leveling and sanding on the rest, got diverted with a day of electrical work, and to top it all off DH has been sick as a dog. :-( Cross your fingers for this weekend!

Once they lay the cement board (Hardibacker board IIRC), the floor is level, isn't it? Not sure what you mean by continuing to level it. I live in Florida so everything here is on a slab. No matter how well a floor is leveled sometimes you have to adjust to make sure that the tile evens up with the one next to it. Here's a picture of my DH's bathroom floor being installed. Those blue things are for leveling (and ergo preventing lippage and making sure the joints are the same size.). I would be very mad if I bought expensive tile and found out that it was defective. I honestly think the OP should try to get her money back for the tile if it is that bad. It also makes me think twice about Happy Floors as I was very fond of their Koncept series and considering it for my bathroom - so I'm crossing that off the list. Here is a link that might be useful: leveling system This post was edited by jerzeegirl on Tue, Jun 24, 14 at 19:33

The later pictures look more accurate during daylight, but at night the floor appears to have more red tones and the ctop appears a bit more gray. The porcelain tile has a very dull finish so it's absorbing the light while the shiny granite is reflecting it We are still going back and forth on back splash options. I'm thinking the back splash should be simple since the ctop is so speckled and busy. I would like a combination of stone tile and glass tile, but nothing that commits me to any certain color scheme. Knowing us it will be Christmas before we decide a wall color. I think we will stay away from colors that are too green because it will make the cabinets look too red. We have a neutral taupe, light blue/green, yellow, and gray theme going throughout the rest of the house. Thanks again for all the compliments and suggestions!

It's okay, guys. We've decided to stain, seal, and say the Serenity Prayer. ;) I understand everyone's viewpoints. For me, it was a battle between whether I want to NOT be a doormat vs. just having faith that everything will turn out fine. The sales person who sold us the home and the foreman have come back saying that the stain and seal are actually the more expensive route they're taking. Our foreman says that he will personally make sure the grout guys do everything right this time AND he will also personally make a "kit" for us for future use, in case we need it. They've also asked us if we'd be available to meet the Rep from the company where the stain & seal are coming from, so that they can explain everything to us so that we're comfortable and better understand how well it works. Yes, we wish they'd offer to swap or compensate us for the mistake......but I'm just grateful that they're trying to take the time to help us feel like they're not just trying to "shoo us away". We put most of the money towards the flooring and the kitchen (flooring mostly), so that's probably why it was the most upsetting for us. My husband and I just want to make sure that they're not going to make it worse. He IS the breadwinner and I believe he deserves to see his money put to good use. YES....we aren't getting a "custom"/"luxury" home. And we should just accept minor mistakes. But what people need to realize is that for some of us...this is the CLOSEST to a luxury home we might ever get. The money for this was hard to come by, so I truly hate that we probably are being pains in the a**es. Never wanted that to be the case. Never wanted a bad relationship with our builders. We just thought we were in our right to push for what we believed was fair...especially since it's a BIG investment for US. We're not rich. We're not poor. We're just happy to be able to build a new home. No matter what, it'll still be a better house than our old 1950s house that constantly needed repairs. As for the tile....I guess we could have just let it go and not get all bent out of shape about it. But I think part of it has more to do with stress piling on. I don't know. Either way, we're moving on and hoping for the best. If anything, I've already had it in my head that if they change the look of the tile, I can always repaint the rooms or do something differently to make it look better. Overall, I don't think it looks horrible; just not what we wanted. It's fine. As long as the house doesn't fall apart on top of my children, I think we'll be golden. ;) Thank you all for your input and encouragement. I was surprised to see and hear how many people pushed for us to speak up and make sure we got refunded/discounted/compensated...on Houzz and in person. It's good to know that we weren't the only ones who felt they needed to make amends in some way. If anything, this has been a humbling experience...and a growing experience. At the end of the day, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. It's grout for crying out loud. lol! Can't complain too much, even though I feel like we had a right to bring up concerns and frustrations. Again, at the end of the day, it's better than what we had. It's not a luxury home.....but it's more "luxurious" than our old home. And yes, our expectations may have been high; but that's because we've never known of new-builds before; and since we ARE spending a lot more money than we're used to, we expected them to do everything right. Might have been foolish to think that....but we are novices. Ya live, ya learn eh?