Yup. Here's a photo that includes the whole kitchen but shows the tile. The cabinet panels are temporary while we figure out a new wall colour and maybe cabinet colour, so pardon the colour scheme. We laid the tile and it is laid flat enough (and maybe the tile itself is flat enough) that glasses do not wobble appreciably - no breaks other than when something gets dropped right on it. Even with kids, and my kids grew up with this kitchen. As for maintenance... this kitchen is now 20 years old and it has WORKED - see remark about kids, above. And also, after I took the photo I realized it shows dark spots on the drawers from where I push them shut... definitely time for an overhaul!! But they're honestly not as noticeable in real life :-) So I can tell you that the grout lines are indeed the weak link in the formula. Worst is definitely around the sink, and also where I do the majority of food prep. Where the counter has mostly stayed dry the grout is absolutely fine (it's blue plus painted with blue sealer). But where it regularly got wet and stayed that way for too long, the grout is literally worn away; we can see the spacers. We did re-grout one section with some success. If I could do anything differently I would go back and just wipe the counter dry twice as often (not my strong point). Sink is overlayed and again, something you just have to wipe regularly, more often than I did which should not be hard. That's just caulk (probably latex) you can see from this angle. I love having the bullnose at the edge. But if you look closely at the corner near the front of the photo, you can see a chip where I banged against it with a milk bottle. DARN. Lesson: the tile itself is also fragile, and even the field tiles can break with a severe impact, say if a jug falls out of a cupboard. KarinL

Thanks for the compliment shelayne. Sorry I didn't see your question until now. The floor was the original pine I found under the linoleum. I scraped it clean and always meant to tile. But, in the meantime, I just painted the floorboards a glossy black. It looked great right after cleaning, but it showed every bit of dirty and doggy footprints. People must have liked it though, because the house sold right away even though I never got around to tiling!

Thanks for the responses! I'm still not sure if we're going to change the kitchen or not, but if we do... Our kitchen has a 'desk area' that is around the corner and drops down from this other counter top. What I'd like to do is trim off the overhang and take off the desk area counter top...and lift it up to be even with the rest of the counters. This would mean removing the lower counter top and putting new base cabinets in....then placing the top back on. I was hoping to trim off the extra counter top by the range, so that the previous desk area would fit against it. If I do this, I'll also be cutting out the cooktop, to put in a range...which means I'm cutting both sides of this little counter top area. That's why I may just end up covering it with tile.

You absolutely don't want grout there for a reason - when the plane shifts and expands, as it will, grout would crack open. That's why you use a colored silicon caulk that matches your grout (all grout companies make it). Don't use grout and cover it with caulk as this defeats the purpose and you'll just have a caulk-coated crack. Hang the bottom row of tile the same distance above the counter as your grout joints, and that joint will just look like another grout line: I'd agree re. the quarter-round trim - I'd fear wood would get wet too often in that area, discolor and ultimately rot away, or else hide wipedown crud underneath it as it loosens over time. :-/