Grout is important.When grout does its job  locking tiles tight, keeping out water, and giving floors and walls a finished look  nobody pays much attention. It's only when grout fails, becoming stained, cracked, or falling out altogether, that people take notice. But grout deserves more respect. "Not only does grout fill the voids, it makes the floor, wall, or countertop stronger by bonding the tiles together and preventing the edges of a tile from chipping and cracking. Cicliot

I had the same dilemna. I have golden oak floors throughout the rest of the house, but I wanted a darker floor in the kitchen. I would have loved an rustic, wide plank wood floor. This floor would not have matched the floors in the rest of the house and I was warned that the transitions from one floor to the other would not look so good by the saddles. In the end, I decided to go with the wood look tile because it works better with radiant heat than wood. I am so glad we did. Between the children and dog it was a good choice for us. I still have to stain the saddles at the two doorways that lead out of the kitchen, but it will be fine. If I used any floor other than golden oak, I would have the transition issue anyway. Love my tile floor! So easy to maintain.

Thanks, it sounds like I need "real" grout lines. Still, the 4"x4" (I've used in a bathroom, including stand alone shower and a tub) have built in spacers that provide, I estimate, no more than 1/16" space between tiles. The work I've done with these is now about 20 years old and holding up well. The subject brick shape however doesn't seem to have any space other than the bevel, which does go down to the unglazed edge of the tile. I would in any case plan on a 1/8" gap at the counter-top which is filled with caulk. I notice there is a Jacks (not sure it isn't Jax) type spacer that looks to my mind's eye to be better than the older flat cross spacer. Any advice on the type of spacer? On a related item, if I cut (wet saw) or break, ceramic scribe and brake, a tile and the edge will be exposed, is it possible to use a polishing stone or other tile cutting tool to smooth that edge, round it off a bit? I know when I hit an interface, including a corner I will use a caulk to close the run...that has worked well in corners where I have the cut edge of the "top" tile facing away from the line-of-sight, making the cut edge almost impossible to see. I'll have to check to see what I did in the bathroom job many years ago when I came to a bull-nose finished edge. I'll guess there must be some cut/broken edges there, I didn't have a wet saw when I did that job. Just in case one cares to advise, my new counter top is a solid man-made material. Do I have to carefully protect it from any drips of a mounting mastic? Would it be safer to use a thin-set as regards any "splats" hitting the new counter-top? I believe most mastic material is petroleum based, I will guess if there is a latex mastic it may be safer to use over the new counter top. The old bathroom tile job I referred to I think I used a combination premixed mastic/grout...hey, it is still holding both the grout and tiles. That job was above fiberglass tub and shower pan, I didn't see any damage from drips on that job.

if the water the issue i wouldn't recommend engineered wood. true it withstands moisture better than whole wood but it's still wood. Kitchen-yes. Smth like bathroom or basement-no. I wouldn't. It won't work the same as tile. Or as vinyl Ceramic wood tile can be a great solution if installed properly, and if correlates well with adjacent places. Vinyl plank, I don't know about enough. I know people seem to love it Neither of choices is incredibly expensive, not neccessarily very cheap either. Tile should be very durable choice though, it being tile. So if already to change-I'd go with tile.