thanks for your reply..I've had a little help from a friend of mine, who is very good at this. She wants me to do the floor, black and tan checkerboard. The first couple of feet on the walls, white subway tile, and the rest of the walls above that a patttern of black and tan. I'm not sure what color the walls will be.

Not to worry about any side conversations up-thread. I enjoyed reading it, and it reminded me that electricians are people too. I purchased my GFI recepticles plus the Decora switches and cover plates at Lowes because I was very specific in what I wanted on the exterior. I didn't buy anything that goes into the wall. The can lights I purchased were expensive, and I bought them for what they looked like. 5 inch cans aren't really "standard" so I thought that it might be easier for me to present the cans and the baffles to my contractor rather than have him run back and forth to HD or Lowes. But the cans went back anyway.... So the only material I had for them was the light fixtures, glass shades, and Decora switches and cover plates, and GFIs, plus the Broan vent light unit (which is fabulous). As a homeowner, I am very very specific about placement of various "improvements" during a renovation. I've drawn on graph paper the wall itself showing the exact placement of the light fixtures, how many inches from the soffit, above the inset medicine cabinet mirror, where the outlet boxes are located with respect to the backsplash, etc. I have found that in writing everything out, at least I've told the tradesmen once and then it's written down, so I'm covered there. In the case of this bathroom, the vanity is 55.5" wide and will have two sinks, two light bars, two inset mirrored medicine cabinets, and two outlets. It's a very tight space with a lot going on, so every inch matters. I've approached my contractor and his electrician more humbly because of your posts. Of course, the fact that I know almost nothing abut electrical work is very obvious, I'm not pretending that I'm a pro, nor will I quibble over a few dollars. The working relationship is more important than that. Now about the other electricians, my contractor's own bid came in the lowest, and only one other company showed up in time to get a bid in before we had to get the work started, but this company couldn't do the work in time anyway. Another company failed to return my call, and a third company called too late. All in all, since we have not had lights in this room for years (except the Solatube which was added last summer-and the toilet/tub room has had lighting, so we're not in the complete dark anyway), so this will be a magnificent change for my family. Thanks again for everyone's ideas and suggestions!

I thought I couldn't recess a cabinet above the sink, but it turns out I can. I thought a pipe was in the way. Anyway, if I get a cabinet that deep, it will not solve my lighting problems--needing to find a fixture that juts out beyond it. Besides that, most of those super-deep cabinets are probably out of my price range. I am, however, trying to figure how else I might plug in my H's razor and toothbrush since I am now going with a recessed Kohler cabinet that has a mirrored interior (so no outlet can be added--that was the whole point of my using the IKEa one, which I now realize is just too big for my space). I'm sort of considering just using it over the toilet instead... I wonder if the two mirrors, one over the toilet and one over the sink, would just be too much?? (They are next to each other, and they don't look alike--the Kohler is arched on the top and the bottom and is smaller and the IKEA one is really big and is square.)

If you feel the quality matches the price point you payed and the quality of tile professional and the contract details you got then its not the worst ive seen. With tiling every single thing comes into play, starts with quality tile itself and hiring someone who can select and source quailty tile and help you not purchase bad tile Then A properly qualified and skilled professional to prep right, the proper time allotment to do the job well, expert layout skills, quality materials throughout and following the proper industry methods and standards, lastly having the correct type of tile related contract to protect yourself. All of this comes at a premium price point . Who did you hire how much effort and time did you put into that and how much did price factor into the result we see here.? who bought the tile and how did they inspect the shipment of tile ? who signed off on the material and the layout, joint size etc..it goes on and on.. No issue with letting it set for a month in a cold home and yes a poor tile job with bad tile and dark grout will look worse than a matching grout.