mycatz-- We bought a wet saw. I just taught myself how. I have already done 3000 sq. ft of hardwoods and plenty of finish work on this house so figured I can do tile as well. Its a long story but we have an absentee builder and a bank who says we must finish, even though they chose our builder. I have learned a great many things from doing all this and feel I could tackle just about anything. Oh and yes you may have to put in extensions,we had to anyway as we have extensive beadboard and need extensions for that as well. Here is some of what I have been working on. Cabs will be white, haven't decided if I am going with lt grey or white grout yet.

Hi Colorado, We used bone color grout. I am not sure about the ones at HD or Lowes --- I didn't know they had Crema Marfil! I know on the travertine floor tiles, my tile guy said to watch out for the "pitting" meaning the holes on some of the tiles. If the quality isn't great, the pitting can go all the way through. I am not sure what to look for in Crema Marfil, other than they told me all of the tiles in my boxes were not the exact same thickness, so they had to pick through a bit to find more consistent ones. Lastly, I did look at several local tile shops and their crema marfil was quite a bit darker and more pink. So, from my perspective, if it looks like a good color, is pretty consistent depth and size-wise and you can get is asap, go for it and post pics when you are done! Can't wait to see it!

We tiled our backsplash, a first for DH and presented some challenges not encountered in our previous floor tiling projects. Absolutely take your time. I think ours took at least 3 weeks, but we had lots of tile and outlets to work in, etc. If you are going up very high with the tile, you may want to put in the first few rows and then wait a day for it to set up before putting in the next rows. If you do all of them at once, the weight can make the tile slide, buckle and fall off, more likely to happen with stone tile since it's heavier. Figure out how you're going to space out the outlets to be flush with the tile. There's a couple of ways of doing it. Be sure to read up on the sealing requirements of stone vs ceramic tile. When you pick a grout color, make up a small sample board and let the grout dry at least a day, preferably 2 to see if you like the color. The grout will lighten up as it dries. We found the final color we liked on try #5. When using real stone, there will be more waste than with ceramic. Since it's a natural material, some tiles will not be useable, or will break when cut due to unseen flaws. Plan for that and buy enough extra. Examine the tile when you get it and see if the colors are consistent from box to box. Mix them up if not. Natural materials do not necessarily have consistent color. A wet saw is useful. Otherwise, you have to plan your cuts and take the tile somewhere to have it cut, or rent one. We bought one on ebay and have used it on several projects, and will sell it when we're finished with it. Take your time and don't let the project stress you out. Good luck and let us see pictures of the finished kitchen.

I would expect that Calacatta as a field tile would be too expensive for this kitchen. Thanks for getting those mosaics off their website, rebunky. I like the stick mosaic but I'd probably use something more like the 1 x 3 brick. I love squares but I know that's a dated look. The wave tile is dimensional. There's also a hexagon and a mini herringbone mosaic. I'm never quite sure what you can get in which finish from Encore. Confusing website. I'll think about adding color in green and/or red if I do a mosaic. If I was able to get Encore, which would probably involve going to Seattle for an overnighter, I may be able to get a field tile in the Bravo line. Thanks, guys. Next step is getting out to some tile stores.