Don't buy poor quality travertine from a box store or discount store. It's something that you get what you pay for. The biggest thing is the prep for a flat floor if there are humps and bumps or birdbaths in your slab. Those need to be addressed prior to starting to set the tile. Travertine also needs sealing, and it's porous enough that multiple sealing coats post install are recommended. 511 is a good quality impregnating sealer and will help to keep stains from penetrating the surface. It's about $100 a gallon. You will need to repeat the sealing periodically, and the schedule will depend on your cleaning products and frequency. When water doesn't bead up on it anymore, the sealer has been stripped, and it's time to seal again. What it won't help with, and no sealer will help with, is etching. Travertine will etch when exposed to acids. It's also relatively soft, so you need to be sure that you have rugs at the entrances to capture the dirt and grit from shoes and keep it from scratching the flooring. Personally, I prefer a porcelain look alike. No need for any care at all if you use a urethane or epoxy grout. And will stand up to even an abrasive beach environment onslaught by sandy shoes.

Thx all. It came out better than I expected. The color is better in real life or earlier. This was at 7pm as the sun was setting. It turned out my fireplace is also limestone which I forgot because it was buried behind a massive sofa set. I think it will go well with the grey and espresso cabinets.

Wow. Those floors are STUNNING! I know they FEEL busy right now (because they are 100% visible). Once you get your furniture in place you will only see 50% of them. Tah Dah! You have made 50% of the floors disappear just by moving in! Congratulations! Way to go! Now you ADD LARGE AREA RUGS to the spaces where you see WAY TOO MUCH flooring for your personal taste. When done properly, you can reduce the amount of flooring you see to 25%. Hallway runners, standing mats in the kitchen, area rugs under sofas/all seating areas, etc. They are fast and elegant and can be changed out in SECONDS to suit your needs/current trends. The natural travertine is the SAME COLOUR as natural wood floors. I would treat them the same way as I treat natural wood floors = ignore them! Nope. Not kidding. An oak or maple floor in a clear coat would be IDENTICAL in colour/variation/business as your travertine floors. A laminate or vinyl floor will be the same. As for replacing those floors, that is a BIG job. Stone is DEATHLY DIFFICULT to remove. Ceramic/porcelain tiles cost $2/sf to remove/dispose of. Stone tiles can be $4/sf for the same form of demolition. The travertine itself is one of the highest end flooring products we have on the market. Solid stone throughout a home is MUCH HIGHER END than most hardwoods or most tiles. They are expensive to purchase and expensive to install ($15/sf for labour alone...cost of materials are extra). Part of the VALUE of your home (you JUST PAID FOR) is found in the floor. If you estimate the floors are worth $15 - $20/sf (installed), you can then multiply that by the SIZE of the house. If the house is 2000sf (I'm just guessing...it makes the math much easier) your floors could be worth $30K - $40K. That means your homes PURCHASE PRICE has $30K worth of flooring BUILT IN. I know you are not fond of the stone (not tile...STONE) but it is just as natural as wood. It can be REFINISHED for HUNDREDS OF YEARS (around $3-$5/sf for it to be ground down and resealed). The one thing I would look at first is the kitchen. To me it dates the house MUCH MORE than the floors. If it were me, I would look at grinding down the MAIN ROOM and have it resealed in a LOW GLOSS finish. That low gloss will REDUCE the intensity of the dark/light tile contrast. Your current photos show a SHINY main room with lower gloss rooms (calmer tiles) elsewhere. For $3/sf you can have the tiles refinished in a low-gloss sealant that reduces the colour. It could buy you 10 years before you have to find $40K in budget to replace these floors.

Beth is correct re: resale value in 20-30 years time. A 'flip' is sen to happen inside of 5 years (2-5 years and then you are OUT). That's when you pay attention to trends. A long-term floor is one you live with for 10+ years. At that point you IGNORE the trends and resale and pick what YOU WANT. Living with a floor for 10 years while HATING IT is one of the worst things you can do to yourself. It's like buying the most uncomfortable mattress for $30K and not being able to sleep for 20+ years. With your time line, you want to purchase and install something that works for you, your life style and your expectations. The 'look' of something is only valuable to you. In 20 years your Realtor will tell you to rip out all the floor OR offer a flooring discount to the next seller. That's the type of "Fashion Time Line" we are talking about here.