It's too bad that detail was missed during the layout and design phase of the shower. I'd hate to see the rail left off that fourth wall, unbalanced installations look...well...unbalanced. If the escutcheon plate can hide the cut edge of the chair rail tile then that'd probably be the best compromise; scribe the chair rail to go around the escutcheon plate. The reason I'm not a big fan of scribes like that is in the event the valve is ever replaced. Sure, it might be 10 years from now, 5 years from now, or never. But the scribe will come into play for the new escutcheon plate. If you do scribe it to fit the valve cover plate, keep a couple of pieces of chair rail tile as "extras" for that day way down the road. Just in case. There are a few alternatives, but they involve tweaking the tile design. Some changes can be local, just around the shower valve. A "box" border around the valve with the chair rail butting into the box border. Some changes can be wholesale. But the easiest would be to scribe the chair rail tile around the valve's plate. Just as long as the cut edge is covered by the plate it should look fine.

Thank you for the picture and suggestion jacqueline5. Your bathroom looks like it will be lovely. Please post pictures when the project is complete. Actually I have looked at the Home Depot Greecian as well as the Lowes White Venatino tile. We actually used the Lowes marble in our master bathroom last year for the threshold, shower sills and niche trim. It was a great deal and worked perfectly. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bath/msg0318035216653.html These white marbles from china must have a reputation for crumbling and breaking because we had to have the shower sills cut lengthwise and our local fabricator told us the same thing and wouldn't guarantee anything...but luckily they didn't break. However, the Lowes and Home Depot marble don't seem to be working for us this time. It may be just the lots they have in stock right now but I think it is actually the Calacatta marble I am working with and the fact that I am not breaking it up like you did with the shell tile, but rather putting one right up against the other. The Calacatta tile we purchased for the master bath had more muted greys in it and the Lowes white marble worked with it. The Calacatta for our hall bath I actually think is a higher grade Italian Calacatta. It is a very creamy white with stricking taupe veins with a green undertone. The Home Depot tile and Lowes tile is not as creamy (more crystalized) and not the right white color tone. I am going to keep checking HD & Lowes, but will probably have to order (either online or from a store) accent tile sight unseen. I hate to do it but I have found nobody local who stocks calacatta trim tile.

First of all, to make things simple, I round every measurement to the nearest 1/4 foot and round every product to the nearest foot. Doing so, I get 387'. Then I look at the layout and determine whether I think it will take more or less waste and factor in how the material being priced usually runs. Minimum waste factor is 5%. For yours I'd go a little higher then see how it comes out with full cartons. 387 + 6% = 410' 410' is 20.8 ctns. so ordering 21 ctns. would give me 414.12'. I think you should be able to cover 387' with 414' of material. The most waste is potentially going to come from the long rip cuts in the big room and hall. It wouldn't hurt to order an extra box. You might end up with an unopened box but it's nice to have some spares, just in case. A few notes: You made a typo on 2.3 x 5 = 20.7 but your total is correct. More importantly, 24 x 19.72 = 473.28, not 372.18. Depending on how difficult it would be to get an extra carton should you need it, I'd order 21 or 22 cartons.

>whether to disregard door casings or other trim that's in place or to subtract them from the floor plan dimensions? If you have one door will be much different than if you have a double door or each wall. Use common sense. >How do you account for the amount extra needed for mitered corners? Doesn't that add about an inch per corner for a 1/2" thick baseboard? Yes, plus saw kerfs. I'd suggest doing coped molding on inside corners instead of miters. You will also need to plan for which side is coped and which is not. Normally, you want the cope to be least visible from the room entry or common sitting areas. >How much extra do you include for waste or errors? Ha! How many errors are you going to have? Do you have only long walls, or a bunch of short walls? >Do you make a list of cuts and figure that way? What's the best way to assemble the cuts into board lengths? Yes. While you might come up with, say, 75 feet as a requirement, you don't want to have one wall made up of 1-2' pieces all spliced together. Make a cut list and lay it out on your board lengths. Use a scale drawing. If you have difficulties with mental spacial balancing, you can use paper cut outs or if you have "cut list" software, use that. >I'll be getting 16 foot boards. Anything else to consider when measuring and ordering? Do you have a way to transport these home? Be sure to tie down front and back and not just in the middle if you are using a roof rack. The link below showed up in my inbox this week. While it's for chair rail, much of the same you can apply to base molding. Part 1 is available, too, but mostly tool set up. Here is a link that might be useful: chair rail project