You have a few more problems than some missing tiles. When trenching such as yours, the exposed sides of the old slab should have been drilled and pegged with rebar from one side to the other to help reduce the chance one side will rise or fall different than the other. Was this done in your case? If there is no rebar, the edges of the slab will need to be treated as a cold joint in which case you'd need a grout joint / expansion joint above each side of the trench. Then comes the need to remove more tiles in order to install a crack isolation membrane (or similar) to reduce the chance of in plane movement in the future. This will make for some ugly grout joints. Can I interest you in some nice carpeting?

I was so set on getting wood look tile until my friends told me to check on Luxury Vinyl, and after doing some reading here on GW, I am almost convinced to switch to LVP/LVT. BUT then I see @Season Contreras's beautiful tiles, I am not so sure again! I like the durability of the tiles and that we can drag furniture on it with no problem of scratching it or damaging it, but then I like the LVP for being warm and not so hard on foot. We are doing about 1000 sqft for kitchen plus family room and entry way, (the rest of the house is carpet for bedrooms and a loft). We have two boys and a dog, a pool right outside the family room, got a big yard with lots of dirt, boys will probably bring some of that in all the time.... Houses in my neighborhood worth about a little over a mil (not ours because we bought it a fixer), they mostly are retired so no little kids running around so they mostly use hardwood or engineered wood. We are in our 40s and plan to retire in this house and not selling anytime soon. What should I use, Wood look tiles or Luxury Vinyl? Thank you for your help!

I vote for floating, click, wood look, luxury vinyl plank. I especially like the style with knots and chatter marks. Lay it throughout the whole house, on the diagonal, with no thresh holds. That's what I did. I can clean the entire house in approximately five minutes with an electric leaf blower. Porcelain tile is more durable however it is more expensive to buy, more expensive to install, and more expensive to uninstall. Also, some tile is extremely slippery when wet whereas wood grain LVP is not slippery at all. Five years later I am happier than ever I chose grey driftwood luxury vinyl plank for a house with dogs, kids, beach sand, and lots of wet feet. If the house gets inundated from storm surge and ocean water gets inside, I can unclick the LVP, clean and dry the subfloor, and then reinstall the same LVP and it will look as good as new.

Jan, maybe I am using the term border inaccurately? The way my walls and vanities flow, the "border" I speak of will serve as a backsplash, continue (same wall) to the tub area, freestanding, and hence the wainscot height (with wall tile under it). That area flows to the shower with 45 degree angles (3 windows), where I want to continue the "border" and tiles. The tile does NOT look like it goes with the slab in my above pics, but it does very well, as dos the hex tile. Think your underlying idea is shower and floors should match? Or maybe I AM using the term border correctly, in which case you don't like. :-) If so, trim ideas? TY!