Having lived with our hand blown glass sink for 6 years - and with at least 8+ friends that have glass sinks, I have never seen any problems with temperature cracking or scratching... I think Oceana's claim to fame is that their type of glass is supposedly better for high use applications - i.e. kitchen sinks. ...not to take anything away from Oceana - just pointing out our own experience. I would not limit myself to just this one company for a glass sink... ...and I would stay away from the production sinks from China... I have one friend that took a glass vessel sink with a fairly flat rim and with a creative wood "saddle" underneath, they supported the sink in an undermount installation and it looks pretty cool. Another thought is that you can widen the hole in the countertop and lower the height of the sink that way for sore of a "semi-recessed" installation.

Hi Jockewing have you decided on a color yet? I agree with what above kittypawz said that you should use softer muted tones of blue in the wall and then bring out the brights in your bedding and curtains. I just went to a dinner party where the owners had SW comfort gray in the master bedroom and the effect was gorgeous. Of course it was evening and the lighting was soft(lamps), but I never imagined the color would be called gray as it looked like more a pale blue to me? If you want to go the other route and do light linens and bright walls, then go for a truer blue. If you do soft colored linens and muted colored walls, then the effect will be, well, drab. If you bring up comfort gray on the sherwin williams color tool website, the complimenting colors are Drizzle(bright aqua) and Nonchalant White. So maybe you can go for the Drizzle colored walls, and then tone everything down with pale colored linens and curtains? If you are going with the brown colored bedding, SW Hazel is a very pretty greenish blue color that goes wonderful with brown. Interesting Aqua(6220) is also a very pretty soft aqua color. It seems you are relying on the paint color to be the right shade of blue, but since you haven't decided on bedding yet, you are going for the color just to be the color rather than trying to match it with your linens. So if that;s the case, go for a truer blue b/c until you have everything in that room, every shade that is less than blue will look drab. Post pics after you've painted and put everything together so we can see the result. :)

Thanks Mary, Sorry I didn't answer your question sooner. With perfect hindsight the solution would be as you suggested - to order enough extras to make up for the unusable ones. Had I thought of it I would have ordered a whole bunch more and then returned the flawed tiles. Anyway, I have mapped out where the best tiles will go and have set aside the very worst tiles which we won't need to use since there are extras. I also made markings on some of the crappy ones that show which half is usable, so that they can be salvaged in corners or other places the tile will be cut. Anyway, what a pain! When all is said and done I plan to bring back the unused tile for a refund. Any that are leftover will be bad enough to be non-usable for anything else, so I'm hoping that at the very least I can get a few bucks back and make our unhappiness known. The backsplash gets installed tomorrow so I will be hovering nervously, but I am certain that it will look awesome when all is said and done. :)

Ontariomom, I wonder with the set up that Ice has if that still might work for you because the panels are not solid up to the railing. I think the opening above the frosted glass makes it much less a barrier than frosted glass all the way up. I don't think it would appear to block the house like other, more solid choices would. And it would give you a bit of privacy on that deck, plus solve the cleaning issues. You could explore the code for how much space above the glass to the railing you could have.