No real tricks that I can think of for the ceiling tiles. Depending on how floppy they are I set the edge of the sheet I'm installing next to the sheets that are already set, align it, then "roll" the rest of the sheet on to the ceiling. Give it a slight massage and you're on to the next sheet. If you do install wall tiles that tend to slip down the wall, it might help to set them slightly high, then slide them down to the desired spot. Sliding them down can sort of take away the ability for the tile to creep on its own. It can be thinset-dependent and tile-dependent though, but it's a technique that works. For me at least. Sometimes.

I recall a thread here, maybe a year ago, close to this topic. My takeaway then was: the poster did a pretty poor job of negotiating and decision-making in this area. It might be new for some (never hired or fired an employee, wasn't clear about expectations and price, etc.) and there's always an unknown variable even if the person cleans all your friend's homes. I think the benefit of a chain like Merry Maids is some (perceived) accountability but that means nothing if they're terrible. I've found that personal recommendations and long-standing local companies, at least, offer the most fair shot. I would totally provide the potential cleaner with the list and ask how much it will be. If it's not reasonable to you, don't hire them or cut your list. This is a human being who deserves good, kind communication (you benefit from it more actually) but is also an employee who can be fired at-will. There are a ton of options out there. GW is almost all posts inquiring about a product or service instead of buying blindly. Why would you hire someone to clean your house without doing the same? I've had the same lady cleaning my apt for over 10 years. It's a pretty simple business to start, which is why she did it while she pursued citizenship. (We even went to her oath ceremony.) After using a few friend's cleaners at my weekend house for six months, I ended up going with a local service who manage the people and give me single contact for all my questions. It's worked out great, but costs about 15% more. It took a while to find someone I liked, but I wouldn't settle for less than what I want. It seems that people do for some reason.

Jacqueline5, thanks for posting the color. I thought it might be Revere Pewter. I was going to RP with my bathroom but thought it might read too dark, in my low light. So I was going to use it in a sitting room, but decided against it and used something else. I actually have a gallon on hand. I dislike the color I ended up using. I am thinking of using the gallon of RP I have to paint up a sample board, and see how it looks in there. The sitting room has a fair amount of west light. I don't know what's going on, but I keep seeing pink in my colors and I was afraid that the Revere Pewter would have a pink cast too. I'm glad to hear you say that it is olive. I love green and blues. Your counter is beautifully installed. Is it 2cm? It looks like it is at the sink. If it is they did a terrific outer edge. The edge must have been mitered, right? I see the section of the stone from where the counter was taken. I love it.

May I rant? ;-) My DH delivered pizzas not that long ago, and managed to last two whole weeks before handing in the shirt that Dominos so "kindly" gave him. He was told that if he wanted to wear a jacket during cold months (and who wouldn't, being in and out of a car all night long?), he couldn't wear his own but would have to buy -- paid for out of his own pocket, mind you -- an official Dominos jacket. And it wasn't cheap. Of course, he was also required to use his own vehicle, buy his own gas, and pay for parking out of his own pocket (he worked a downtown beat, where free parking is practically nonexistent). He was never clear on the procedures for reimbursement. His manager was never quite forthcoming on how to go about things like that. The jacket-buying requirement was pretty much the breaking point for him, after several deliveries where he was tipped nothing to very little. If the pizza prep folks were running behind and his delivery thus thrown off schedule, some people were positively irate that he showed up on their doorstep bearing their dinner 15 minutes later than they expected. As though it was somehow his fault, they chose to "punish" him by not tipping one red cent. ("That'll teach that pizza delivery guy to be so slow" -- I guess that was their logic.) He delivered 10 pizzas to an office building that required him to pay for his own parking, carry his heavy load through security, and then when he arrived at the drop-off point, an employee at the office that had ordered the pizzas was standing there with her hand on her hip, wrist cocked to her face as though she were checking the time -- and she wasn't even wearing a watch. For his efforts, he received a 75 cent tip. If you ever want to encounter some of the most hatefully impatient and dismissive people on the planet, do a stint as a pizza delivery person. For every kind and generous soul, there seem to be two who are nasty and for whatever reason, feel it's their place to look down on a person performing what they consider to be a worthless, menial task. It seems that too many people tranfer their feelings about the "lowliness" of the job to the person, and that's a lesson I hope I'll always carry with me ... and behave towards others accordingly. OK -- sorry for that little somewhat unrelated-to-the-original-topic rant. Whenever the subject of pizza delivery folks comes up, I guess I get a bit defensive. ;-)