yes horizontally, its the short wall that I'm having trouble with figuring out. A contractor will be doing it, but I don't want to hear any excuses from them. Also, should I run a piece of bullnose past the top of the tub all the way down the wall, or just run the bullnose to the tile flange of the tub?

Hey biondanonima! I rarely, if ever come over to this forum, but popped in a whim (bathrooms are next on our horizon!). I'd called Kerry to let him know I'd given out his name and number and he told me he'd spoken with you when he called back. Trust me when I say you will be much happier with his work than what I'm seeing here in your pics. He is extremely conscientious, and takes great pride in doing things the way they are supposed to be done (he's a second or third generation tile guy). You have to promise to email me and let me know how it all comes out (let me know if you post new pics here since, as I mentioned, I don't frequent this forum--yet!).

The wall tile is going have to be removed around the bottom perimeter and up to an area where there is no longer any evidence of water damage at least. It's possible that you could salvage a lot of the tile by careful removal and if you don't want to spend the money having someone else do this slow task, you could do it yourself in preparation for the contractor. My parents had to do this in a bathroom with a leaking shower and unfortunately had to replace some of the tile, they wove in a coordinating tile because believe it or not they could not find a white tile that matched in exactly the same size at that time. That repair was done 40 years ago and when the house was sold it was still intact.

it's just a matter of choice. pennies need a skilled installer to avoid in 'grid-patterns'. normallly if they offset each sheet it blurs the lines. hex mosaics are similar, a bit more forgiving. I hope you're going w/a larger subway tile rather than a 3x6. (less grout) I did white subway tile and black w/mine, but used a marble mosaic. (the grout is Mapei Warm Gray) tiles are 4x12 YOu can buy nice looking containers to display in the niche. always use a solid piece of material for the bottom shelf in the niche. grout is not waterproof. placing the niche is just as important. do the math. layout your tiles and figure out where they will go on the wall. cut your niche so that it falls between full tiles. (see all of these examples) the last thing you want are sliver cut tiles around your niche. this is perfectly placed and perfectly done. You need an expert tile setter to get this degree of work. compare those beautifully done niches to a few that are poorly done, and you'll see what I mean this one above is just bad all around. see the sliver cut tiles on the side? the lack of symmetry? the niche itself is horrible. the cut tiles are just wrong, and they didn't use bullnose tiles for the outside edges. this one, while nicely executed, was laid out poorly. see the cut tiles above and below? The tiles on the sides are not symmetrical. if they would have made the niche a tad wider and taller (or shorter) they would have had full tiles. don't expect all tile people to know how to do this. unless you're paying really good money and the guy is a well known expert, you won't get this. Always do a dry layout w/your tile. Always know how to start the pattern so you get symmetry on all sides and corners. always avoid 1-2" sliver cuts anywhere in your design. it took us hours to configure a layout (because I wanted a center herringbone) that would give us a perfect layout. almost. that one lower right corner was impossible to remedey because the pattern was an odd number and the tiles are even! everything else came out perfectly cut. Here's a stacked layout w/2x8 tiles? they mirrored the pattern in side the niche, so that if you 'unfolded' it and made it one dimension, all the lines would line up perfectly. not the best looking tile, but the niche was done to a tee! perfectly lined up and symmetrical tiles. I don't believe this had been grouted when the pic was taken anyway, I kind of went off on a tangent there. pick the tile you like. or use the penny in one and the hex in the other. there is no rule that says you can't use both.