Mollie I like keeping up with all the questions you have as most are something I'm running into on my redo of an old 1920s home. My whole house has long length wall to wall pine floors and we are about to begin working in the kitchen which has been moved around so many times that there are some major problems with the pine floors. The rest of the house except for the kitchen has real nice salvageable floors. We thought about the tile route but were determined to find some pine flooring that matched the stuff all ready down and not have the problem with a change in height between the kitchen and the rest of the house. By the time you put down cement board and whatever else you might need plus the adhesive and then the tile---well pretty soon you'd need a ramp for the grandkids to get over it on their roller skates. We were lucky (if you can call it that) I was busting out a wall to get behind the upstairs toilet to replace our main cast iron vent pipe and I ran into our flooring on the wall. I know, I know what you're thinking --that's not flooring --that's your old wood walls with the tacked on gauze and wall paper. Well we have that on all the walls downstairs. All of our second story walls are the same as the floor. Just better as they've never been walked on. I guess the builder got a better deal on the flooring than on the wall boards which are 1 X 6 and the flooring is 3 and something inches. So look around for more pine. I still believe it would be better than tile "ONLY" because of the transition in floor heights. And by the way our old house has a claw foot tub in the upstairs bath. We haven't been able to use it because of the plumbing problems but I will climb in it this weekend and let you know how easy it is to get in and out.

Caryscott made some very good points. I have had English speakers and non-English speakers work on my house and I have to say that there have been more problems from the English speaking ones in my case. Knowledge of a language, or lack of, is not the deciding factor in how things come out. Skill, attention to detail and communicating with someone until you understand are all very important. Even if someone can't speak directly to me, there is always someone who is bilingual around and gestures, pictures and drawings help. I have had my words ignored by American born contractors who were told in simple English, often with pix, and yet managed to screw something up anyway. I think it is more about gender tendencies than origin of birth (ducking from the men here, lol). My dh will often not hear something that we, or at least I, clearly discussed. Mistakes will be made. I am just sorry this one has been one that is not easily fixable. I am sure everyone feels awful. I don't think the gc needed to yell at anyone as that solved nothing. Talking clearly to the crew in the first place might have been a better strategy.

Dream It Can be: i can tell you that I LOVE the cambria for two main reasons. 1) you can never tell its dirty. yes, I shouldn't admit this but I don't always wipe up right away. Everything disappears on this counter. 2) no worries at all. I know granite is sealed and shouldn't stain but I know for sure that this won't. I've been handwashing my dishes and leaving them on a dish towel to dry without any concern. I might not have any problem with granite but I would still worry. I think you'll love it too. Oh and a 3rd reason - everyone who comes in actually thinks it's granite. The Cambria designs took a big leap forward in 2011. On all who posted on fixes for the glass doors - I'm going to investigate some of your suggestions this weekend. I'll let you know how that works out. Lastly, how kind you all are. You were encouraging and supportive before the final pics. never did you say, "OMG what have you done?" Only now that the final product has turned out well (love is in the air) have you admitted that you too were worried! I love it. That's the kind of friends one needs during a kitchen remodel. :)

As an update to this the bathroom is finally coming together. I'll post pics here when bath is fully done. Lot of work doing all the tile but I took my time and it looks awesome. Far better than the job done by the builder in rest of the house and way better than the contractor I had hired. The shower pan build was a bit of a pain and I did the first layer twice (ie: ripped out first attempt and started over). Once you get the hang of it though it's not bad. Still, if doing it again I might think hard about a pre-formed tileable base despite the extra cost. The end-result though was great and it drains amazingly well as I made sure to slope it slightly over the minimum recommended. One advantage of doing it yourself on the floor was with the natural marble floor my wife could take her time figuring out which pieces to use where so that the overall pattern was optimal. Don't think you could do that with a pro without extra charges for sure. I found I really like the Ditra. Great product for tile and goes down easily. I used the recommended adhesive for it but think in the future I'll just use Custom's Uncoupling mat mortar for laying the Ditra.