Good input guys. Thank you very much! I've had a couple tile guys come out to provide quotes, just one moments ago. His thinking was to mud or mortar the whole thing, including the kitchen, so no Hardibacker or Ditra, which I was leaning toward... I guess the benefit there would be the ability to make the elevation the same in both the entry way and kitchen... It would 1/2 inch though, on top of the underlayment, then thinset, then tile. That becomes higher than anticipated, and possibly problematic with respect to a transition to carpet in the living room and the DW fitting under the counter. The other tile guy would jackhammer the mortar bed, remove it and use wood to build it up. He'd use 1/4 Hardibacker, however nail those down with roofing nails. He does put some thinset on the bottom of the Hardibacker though. Not so keen on roofing nails on the Hardibacker, but maybe with the thinset under, it would be fine....

No I did not remove the tile except around the sink to remove the old sink. I built forms from wood but the wood on the front was removed after the concrete set for a couple hours and the wood underneath removed the next day. Here is a photo of the concrete in the pass through window after I removed the front mold part. I left the wood underneath to support the overhang until the concrete reached near full strength the next day. You can see some leakage on the right I had to chisel away later. If you do this, I highly recommend caulking all the molds - I only did some areas because I thought I had screwed the soft wood tight enough but I was wrong, the resulting leaks caused all my problem areas. I should have caulked all the seams on the wood molds and I would not have had the problem. The counters still look great after months of use, BTW! here are some pics of the molds: Big mess caused by leak- made painting the cabinets later a lot more work to sand off all that gunk. The leaks also created air gaps in the mold area I couldn't see until the concrete was set, I later had to hand trowel a thick mixture on those areas to repair it. It will never look as smooth as the mold-formed areas. My plan for next spring is to tile the backsplash if budget allows - the beadboard wallpaper is serving its purpose for now but tile will look nicer.

Thanks so much for your help. According to Case#2, you have to get those anchor iron into the foundation somehow. How does that happen? I also got the following suggestion from an online expert (Bruce Johnson): Hi Susan, digging down to the existing footer is the best method. Next would be to drill and epoxy rebar into the existing foundation wall and pour an attached footing at a higher elevation say 8" below grade, install one course of masonry to bring it to grade and then start your brick. The angle iron will work but it would have to be hot dipped galvanized and pre drilled prior to galvanization and installed with galvanized fasteners. Otherwise it will eventually rot away leaving the brick unsupported. I hope this information helps, please feel free to write again regarding this or other matters. That would address the issue of how it looked finished under the angle iron, I would think. THe Tru-Brix system does not allow for adhering brick directly to the wood sheathing. There is a steel channel system installed first and then the bricks are slid onto that and then mortared into place. There is an installation video at their site at tru-brix.com. The Tru-Brix guy, naturally, says digging to the foundation risks disturbing your tile system and gravel which I don't want to do. Access to the interior side of the wall isn't possible as it's my husband's home theater and not even my love of brick would allow that room to be distrubed. So it seems it is Tru-Brick or the angle iron and I'm not thrilled to have holes drilled into my foundation (interior leaking). Your thoughts on this are appreciated.

I think it's going to be hard to get a good answer when we can't really see what you have with such grainy and poorly lit pictures. Can you use a different camera a post better ones? You might also stand farther out in the yard, showing the new patio space with the old patio in the background. You mention that the patio is raised, but this cannot be seen in the picture. You need to show it so we can understand how it might have an impact, if it does. Also, what would make a difference is your plan. Do you have one that you can post so we can see the layout. If the white line is half-way accurate, I can't imagine that the end result is going to look good no matter what kind of surface or finish you use. It's too contra for me anyway.