There are some tile pros on the board, so hopefully they'll chime in. In the meantime I have tiled a few areas of my own home and have a few thoughts: It would be worth a trip to your local library to check out books on tiling. There are a lot of not-so-obvious things about it that would be covered in the book -- some that come to mind are the mathematical calculations you'll want to do before starting, where to start, the use of and reasons for using a "beater bar", making cuts for outlets -- the placement of these may factor into your original mathematical calculations. It will also cover issues such as ensuring your tile goes up in a straight line, and the even grouting lines questions will be answered in there, too. To get even grout lines I us spacers, but some tile have them built in, and there are also some techniques to learn about spacers that will be discussed in the books -- the first time I tiled, I actually got part way through the job before I figured out I was using the wrong part of the spacer (I used the handle which was not uniform thickness) to space my tiles and they had to be pulled off and redone. I would also strongly urge you to have your first section be on the very least visible part of your kitchen, there will definitely be a learning curve, and you want the most prominent area to showcase you're best work. I'm assuming your tile is average thickness -- if you're using a heavy tile then I have a few more tips for you -- my last project (also my back spash) was a thick, heavy porcelain tile and I found out (the hard way that there are other techniques for heavy tile that I should have used.... so be aware, the weight matters, too.

AND.....the hits keep coming............ I have not seen any further activity in the house. I keep checking...but nothing. Holding my breath but hopeful. HOWEVER...today I decided to clean out my shed. It is an all wood 8x12 structure that I built myself in the corner of my backyard. It is built upon four 6x6 posts (embedded in concrete) and is four (to six) inches above the ground (suspended). I had a large hardwood tabletop and a big piece of butcher block countertop stored in there. As I was removing items I noticed a large blemish on the tabletop. I thought I might have scarred it with a bicycle that I'd had hanging next to it. Nope....termites. I pulled the tabletop (and butcher block) away from the wall and they were prettly well chewed up. I soaked them with bug killer (because I didn't want to unleash live insects into the wild) and hauled them to the curb. Then I noticed that tremites had chewed up the plywood inner wall of the shed. Mud tubes (might as well be..mud WALLS) were erected in the corner of the shed. One single mud tube went all the way to the ceiling. It had all been hidden by that giant tabletop. There was damage in one other area as well....and I could HEAR the termites munching away. The damage is pretty harsh but IS salvageable (and does not appear to be structural). I doused all the affected areas with Termiticide. The termites also munched on other pieces of scrap project wood I'd been storing in there. I trenched around the back and side of the shed and (in the back) found a LIVE cluster of termites and mud tubes centered around some decorative stones I'd placed around the base of the shed. This area is CONSTANTLY moist (due to rain and shade). I soaked the trench in termiticide (including the backfill) and will complete the treatment for the front and other side tomorrow. I am exhausted. If anyone else has gone through this...I feel your pain. The destruction of these little buggers is unreal. I am confident I can patch my shed up...but man....what a frustrating pest to deal with. Cheers.

Sounds questionable. Variations from 2 to 3 inches are rare. Chances are you don't have them, but even if you did, putting down parquet wouldn't disguise them. Get a long straight board and/or a level and set it on sections of the floor. Making a blanket statement about all concrete floors being out of level is inaccurate. The parquet in the unit was probably done because it was an inexpensive wood floor, not to deal with a subfloor issue. Floating floors are very sensitive to level however. They generally use the same specification as architects which is level to 1/8" within 10'. Humps in the floor can cause areas to be bouncy. This is generally easily fixed by doing some floating.

@palimpsest Your illustration is incredibly helpful. Thanks so much! None of the other locations have the doors meeting as straight on as this one so I didn't quite realize that a door stop like you placed would work for this situation. I may upload other pics of contact points for you to brainstorm too! This is going to be a guest studio and I know that my guests can be very rough on things. Also, the doorways in these apartments are really narrow so the doors get banged open all of the time - by my dog, by me and my husband if our elbows are sticking out, if you are walking through a door with anything in your hands. We have knob dents in our walls elsewhere and I expect lots of door to door and door to wall contact here too.