I didn't graduate from ECSU. I quit after my first year which would have been in 1981/82. Gee, when I went there it was actually still called ECSC....LOL. okay, so I am seriously dating myself :) Let's see, my fav pizza places were in New Britain or Southington. I left CT in '91 so I don't even know if they are still around. But see, if you miss a place in RI you just get in the car and you are there in no time! If I drive North for an hour I am still only on the other side of Indianapolis. Man, I remember jumping in the car with a friend just because we felt like walking around in Newport. Never gave it a thought :) Yes, I miss Ethnic foods. Anyone who knows how to cook true ethnic food never seems to move away from the Coasts. But boy do we have a gluttony of steak places around here.... yuk! And the pizza? Try No Greeks in Indiana, period! and no Diners.... and no Italian......well, except for Olive Garden (oh joy!) haha Dang, now I am hungry for things I couldn't get no matter what I was willing to pay! we will be in CT and The Cape this summer and I will eat, eat, eat. :p

Bill - can't a tile person do it this way? Can they be set almost touching, grouted WITHOUT filling the pits in the marble?? If the marble is sealed, how would it then be a breeding ground for bacteria? You CAN NOT set tumbled marble that close without culling through alot of stone to get the proper sized ones you want. I'm about to do a wall hanging project where I bought literally three times the entire square footage for just this reason-- to be able to cull through and get the stone I want for it. That's 45 square feet for a 15 square foot project at 7.00 a foot. Tumbled marble varies so much in size that to set it tight like that would end up in misalignment of the tiles pretty quickly, and then the whole thing would end up looking like hell. appears to be mostly contractor types with will intentioned advise but laced with poor opinions of kitchen designers. Actually I'M the one with a poor opinion of MOST kitchen designers. Many of them don't think things through. So long as they can create a piece of eye candy that THEY like, they're happy. Now, NOT ALL of them are like this. I know of several good KD's. But I've also heard more than my share of horror stories about them. I feel that contractors objectives on a backsplash job may be to get in and get out as quickly as possible, and to do at least a good enough to not get called back for rework. If you'd gone through my gallery AT ALL, you'd never make that statement. They may not want to do a project with grouted joints but leaving the aesthetically desirable voids of tumbled travertine/marble unfilled because it would be hard to do and take too long. That's simply ludicrous. If someone's willing to pay for my time, I'm willing to do what they ask, no matter HOW crazy I think it is, so long as it's not detrimental to the installation. There's a project I've posted many times here and at John Bridge's forum of a roman tub, deck, and circular floor that I did years ago-- total about 150 square feet, and it tooke me three work weeks to install because of the way the homeowner wanted it installed. So don't tell me I'm not willing to put in the time. Concerning some earlier questions, the tile are spaced at about 1/16" +/- You've got two courses of the same sized stone together. Try doing an entire backsplash with that small a joint!! and are set in white mastic. This one speaks for itself.

Histokitch said the pattern is as follows: It's called a raking stretcher bond in bricklaying. Running bond is the name of the traditional subway tile look. In raking stretcher bond, each brick overlaps the one below (or above) by 1/4. It makes sense that Bill knows it as a 3/4 brick joint, which is an apt description. Malhgold - Will do!! SW - I will definitely check pricing through Heath directly, and through the Ann Sacks dealer in Vancouver. I live in Canada which makes things trickier.

Part 5: So, after this whole saga, I have some advice for anyone dealing with a similar situation. Of course, always try to hire a real pro in the first place, not a hack like we did. Look up and read, or buy, relevant industry information that relates to the type of project you are dealing with, such as local codes, ASNI, TCNA, etc. Also read the manufacturer’s instructions for the products your contractor is using. Take BEFORE pictures. It’s fun to look back on the ugly before pictures and see how you improved your home. Take DURING pictures every single day. It’s fun to look back on the in-progress photos. I’ve been taking in-progress pictures of all our project for 30 years. If you work from home like I do, it’s easy. Take pics when the workers leave for lunch and in the evening after they leave for the day. Don’t interfere in the work space, or take pictures while they’re working. Take pictures of every part of the project from different angles including all the buckets of products they have left in the space and all the tools and such that are sitting around. If you don’t work from home, take pictures when you get home at night. If you are traveling and have decided to let the contractor work while you’re gone, ask a friend or neighbor to come over and take pictures for you each evening (give them a really nice thank you gift). Note: Last year the sibs and I helped my Dad remodel his whole vacation home which is 1000 miles away. I was able to go up once and sibs were able to go up twice. We all took tons of in-progress photos. When I was up there, tiling was about to begin. I looked up the installation instructions for the wall-board material they were using for the showers. There were no rolls of fiberglass tape amongst all their supplies and products, but it was called for in the instructions. I emailed the GC and expressed concern that the tile pro might not be planning to tape and seal the boards. The GC took care of it and the project proceeded. The GC was very professional and responsive, and it all worked out, but what if I hadn’t taken pictures, read the manufacturer’s instructions for myself, and brought up this issue? If an issue comes up during the project, email or meet with the GC and it will probably get resolved. Confirm the resolution by email to ensure everyone is on the same page. If your project goes seriously south like ours did when the GC quit, or if your project is really messed up and you are upset with the botched job, still try to have a meeting with the GC and ask them to provide a plan for moving forward to complete the project. Confirm all the communications by email so that there is a record of the communications. Confirm the understanding of any verbal agreements by email. If you and GC are not in agreement, or they quit, then you really have to pause and think about what to do. -- If the GC quits out-right like in our case: Ask for a refund by email or send a demand letter certified return receipt. Then embark on the process of finding a new contractor to re-do your project. After GC says no to the refund request, you can let it go like we did, or decide to sue them in justice court (small claims) or district court. -- If GC sues you, like our quit-GC did, you need to respond and go through the process. You’ll need to download and read your state’s civil procedure laws and construction laws. It is a real PITA, but you have to go through the process. -- No matter who is suing whom, you have to decide whether or not to hire a lawyer. In our case it was just a bathroom, not a whole house, so we decided to represent ourselves. If something like this had happened on a whole house build or remodel worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, well, then I think we’d be hiring a lawyer because the stakes would be so much higher. If the GC still wants to fix things: Ask them to write up their plan and send it to you by email, and then make your home available for them to attempt the fix. Take pictures the same as explained above. If the fix really does fix things, that’s great. If/after the fix fails, you are allowed (under most states’ construction laws – you need to read the law in your state) to fire them. We don’t have any experience with firing a contractor, we’ve never done that. But in our research, we learned that you have to give the contractor a chance to fix things before firing them. You can’t just get mad and fire someone because you have a concern, or even if they really did legit screw something up. You have to give them one crack at fixing it. Reflecting on the trial – why I think we won: We had a bench trial which means you are just talking to the judge and witnesses, no jury. DH conducted the case and called 4 witnesses: the quit-GC, the foreman, me, and the new contractor. We were well organized and prepared, but it was still surprisingly nerve-wracking; I was sweating and felt like I was going to throw up all day. Do the “superman” pose; it really helps. Do it at home, in the elevator, in the bathroom; seriously, it helps. Neither one of us had ever even talked to a judge before. Here are the important things we did that I think made the difference for us. DH prepared and organized all the important documents. He wrote out his opening statement so he could read it instead of talking off the cuff. He had all the exhibits prepared to hand to the judge, and copies to give to the plaintiff. He had extra exhibits on hand that he thought he might need in case the judge asked certain types of questions. All the emails and text messages were put together in one exhibit in chronological order. DH organized his statement and exhibits into 2 “chapters.” The purpose of the first chapter was to prove to the judge that we gave the GC a chance to remedy the situation, and that the GC had quit, not been fired. The purpose of the second chapter was to show why the amount of money we were seeking was justified. For that we used the new contractor’s report and the photographs of the bad work to show that it was necessary for the new contractor to demo all the way back and start over, and that new materials had to be purchased. And the financial analysis showed how we got to the number. The new contractor’s report and photos cross-referenced each problem to city plumbing codes, TCNA, and ANSI, and he walked the judge through the whole report and photos, explaining how things were done incorrectly. I wish this kind of situation would never happen to anyone, but sadly, it will. When projects start, you never think they are going to go south like this. But just in case it does: - Have a contract. - Take before and during photos. - Use email and text for all communications instead of relying on verbal communications and agreements. - Assume that your communications will, one day, end up in the public record, and make sure you always use professional language.