Hi everyone, Well, I'm happy to report this (ripoff) problem has been resolved! DH called the flooring manager today and spoke with him. We own a business also, and dh is a good negotiator, so I "let" him call. LOL! He explained the situation. The man immediately said they could not accept "special order" tile back. Blah, blah, blah. DH had a long conversation with the manager, and even mentioned that his salesman had offered me the tile from another source for less. Of course the manager didn't believe us and thought he meant because they have more than one supplier to stock their store. DH didn't argue, but of course that's NOT what the salesman said when he whispered to me over the desk and said I'd have to trust him since I'd be paying him. Ick.... still makes my skin crawl. Anyhoo, the manager was not going to take the tile back. DH told him we had more to order today, but needed to resolve this first, and said "did you notice the total sale on our tile was almost $17,000.?! And the manager said he did. Then DH pulled out the big guns (many of you suggested it... wish I would have logged on and read this first to get dh straight to it... LOL). He said "well, we're building an 11,000 square foot house, and my wife had thought to furnish much of our home from your large showroom, but obviously we won't be shopping in your store again. That got him! Suddenly he had a call to make and wanted to do something to help us out. First we were basically liars and his salesman was they best they had, and I was mistaken and wrong, and suddenly when they see dollar signs they're going to work with us. Made me really disappointed that it took that, but at this point I didn't want to give in to the slimy salesman. He obviously does things like this to other people. I can't believe that I am the first!! The manager called dh back after some time, and said they'll take it back for 20% restocking fee and $60.00 shipping fee. They "found one of their vendors who would take it back". Hmmm. Supposedly they couldn't take it back under any condition. Wonder why the rules changed?! :o~ LOL! So we decided to just go with their pathetic offer. We don't want this tile sitting in our garage. It is not my favorite tile, so I would not want to save it for another project like a future guest house or whatever (believe me, dh tried to talk me into that... LOL). OUr wonderful tile guy loaded all of the extra up with his helpers and took it over to their store, and picked up the remaining tile we need for our hallway tiling. He had a nice discussion with the manager about how his clients really liked their furniture store and intended to go back for some large purchases..... until today! The manager felt bad and apologized for the misunderstanding. They do have a sign posted that there are no returns on special orders. But tile man stuck up for me and said that of course when his client was in there shopping, she was not looking at little bitty signs on the desk but looking around at tile and designing her spaces. And that when their salesman suggested an extra 10% tile to my tile order, because of course we could return whatever we didn't use, it became "their problem". The manager agreed. Our tile man also advised the manager that he refers about a million dollars in tile sales to that area of that state each year, and it would be a shame if he had to say "except for XXXXX store. They'll rip you off, so avoid them! The manager about choked on that comment and was super apologetic! A few of the tiles were broken when he returned them today. I actually received broken tiles in my order, so when the manager said "oh, you've got a few broken tiles in here" my tile man said "yes, and that's how we received them. They are yours now". And the manager just gave up and accepted them. Brother!! I still don't think they realize they have a weasel working for them. I won't be the one to point it out. But maybe when about 10 other attractive female customers report that he's offering them lower prices if they buy thru him, they'll realize he is not a good representative for their company. Sorry if they didn't want to hear it today. So all's well. I would have preferred ALL my money back since the salesman said that, but sometimes you just give a little to "get" what you need. And I needed that tile out of my garage. :o) Thanks for your great advice. I'm relieved this is over. On to the next saga...... LOL!

Ae2ga contacted me off line soliciting more substantive critique on her board. Apparently we weren't critical enough--step up, people! :) So I took her tile and design elements and did a couple boards. I thought that her underlying problem was that it is hard to use two vivid, contrasting colors in a design in balanced quantities and intensities without making it look like a college sports jersey (Go Cal Bears!). So I did one design where I let blues predominate and one where I let yellows take the lead, although a lot of the elements are the same. I focused on the color balance, and the styles of the different elements don't work together as well as I would like. It was devilishly hard finding things in the right color, let alone the right color and style. Anyway, feel free to rip these apart and let ae2ga know what you really think works and what doesn't with her tile. Floor: .....Yellow: Checkered Marmoleum in Butter and White Marble .....Blue: Daltile Micro Flecks in Moonlight Swim Cabinets: Kraftmaid square raised panel maple in Cinnamon Cabinet Hardware: Plymouth knob and Allison antique brass pull from eknobsandpulls.com Range: Bluestar in blue Counter: .....Yellow: Silestone Yellow Dream .....Blue: Silestone Blue Enjoy Tile: Ae2ga's tile Rangehood: Frigidaire stainless chimney hood Paint: Benjamin Moore Barely Yellow Rug: .....Yellow: Blue oriental rug from therugfactory.com .....Blue: Fronter Moroccan ivory & yellow hand-woven wool rug from Zinc Door Table: From ae2ga's pic, sorry for the loss of resolution Chairs: Furniture Classics English country ladderback side chair from homefurnitureshowroom.com (chosen to resemble ae2ga's, which lost too much resolution to use) Art: Bridge in City Park by Charles Woodward Hutson, ca 1910-1920, from 1stDibs.com Frame: .....Yellow: Paint swatch of Color Guild Galaxy Blue from myperfectcolor.com .....Blue: Paint swatch of Benjamin Moore Midnight Navy from myperfectcolor.com Lighting: .....Yellow: Ikat batik drum pendant from ShadesofLight.com .....Blue: All yellow giclee pendant chandelier from eurostylelighting.com (this is the wrong yellow and wrong style, but I couldn't find anything that really worked)

Benjesbride, where does she lose the 2"? It appears that she is not aware of the loss. Rebeccamomof123, are you pulling permits to do the work, or do you live in an area where the city/town/county inspectors are going to become aware of the work and expect to come in and inspect it? Or is your area more like where I live and anything short of an addition is something that no one will notice and that inspectors don't drop in when workmen are around unless it is really obvious that a big job is being done? The reason I ask is that your clearance for the toilet-to-tub distance is right on the edge of being okay. Some towns will not let you get that close. If you could get inspected by the code enforcement officer, or if you are doing this with permits, you need to draw this up and get it approved before assuming it is going to be approved. If you need to steal back a couple of inches to make it fit, one option is a wall-hung toilet. Your contractor opens up the wall behind your toilet and puts the tank and flushing works inside the wall (not the stuff you have, it is custom made for this purpose) and then the toilet part actually hangs off the wall and never touches the floor. It is much nicer for cleaning. All of Europe has been doing it this way for years, I hear. http://www.geberitnorthamerica.com/en_us/target_groups/enduser/products_enduser/toilets_2/concealed_systems_1/for_toilets_1.html

Hi tmnca! One thing to think about with the Kohler shower pans is whether you may ever be using a shower stool with legs. If you were to get a longer shower bench, the Salient may cause problems because the oval really does have quite a bit of "curb" to it, as shown in Badgergal's photo of her son's shower. With a small shower stool set in the center of the shower, it is fine. If you ever need a longer shower stool, the Bellweather gives you a surface not impeded with the raised oval. I does, however, have a slant to the overall shower floor, so that must be taken into account. I have seen the Bellweather in person. It is a non-slip surface. It almost felt like a surface that would make me trip - catching my foot if I did not pick it up and step. Like if I dragged the foot, it would catch and I would trip and fall. It was a funny feeling to the bottom, and I wondered how it would feel when wet. It was NOT going to feel slippery, though! As for tile in a shower floor, the other reason to have small tiles (besides the grout lines giving traction), is that the small tiles allow the tile layer to better cope with the slant toward the drain. Larger tiles only allow you to slant in one direction. The smaller the tile, the better it is for following contours on a floor that is flowing to a drain from all directions.