Hi Theresse, so glad to hear your kitchen is coming along. (Did I miss it, what color combo did you end up choosing for your cabinets/wall?) RE: grout color, I think you need to wait until you see your actual marble. We're also doing marble and there is so. much. variation. and all that matters is the actual lot you end up with. (As a major control freak, this is freaking me out!) I have to make these exact same decisions, but it's easy to look at someone else's choices and tell THEM what to do ;) Personally, I'd either choose a white/off white that coordinated best with the overall background color of your lot of tile so that the pretty veins of the natural material can shine and the shape would recede a bit. Or, I'd try to pull a tone from the veins in your lot of marble (a very very light shade of that basic tone, if that makes sense) if you want to also emphasize the shape of the subway tile. I really think any way you choose, you honestly can't go wrong because you have beautifully simple counters so to me there's less of a worry that you'd choose something that didn't "go" as well. Anything you choose, your beautiful marble subways (and your awesome faucet!) are going to pop and be your stars. Can't wait to see. :)

Just an update...so I went with a whitish grout because at night it seemed dark since I have no undercabinet lights. I really like how the cabinets and molding tie in:) I am now deciding if I should put a piece of decorative crown and stop,or buy more tile and do the entire wall? It will be tricky making those cuts and not standing on the granite!!lol

It is. I think Red Guard is crap and the bottom of the totem pole in that category. If your going the liquid route then Hydro Ban is tops. Then Aqua Defence. I would not use any other brand. I quite using liquids myself about two years ago and switched out to Ardex 8+9 for my non steam shower builds. Your meeting is not going to go very well. I think you best contact the city hall and see if they have any local requirements. You are surely going to piss off the workers to no end highlighting their lack of skill set. I help design showers all over North America and on most of the projects I help over see my involvement goes over like a ton of bricks. This is likely going to play out the same way. You will hear things like "This is how we always do it" "It's fine this way". But the instructions for even just the backer board have been skipped. This by itself is one bad thing. Had even some poly or a double layer of building paper been used you would at lest have a shower that was done right at the lowest level of shower building.

I'm doing a mini reno. The cabinets will just be painted white. The ceiling will be flat. The floor & counter top is staying as of now. The shower/tub combo is coming out & a shower only with frameless glass door will take its place. I really want white subway tiles for the shower walls, (thoughts?) What color grout if white subway tile is decided on? Finally, due to cost I'd like to keep the current oil rubber bronze hardware, but would brushed nickel look 100x better or not make a huge difference? Any additional input is appreciated!