You guys, I can't thank you enough for your input. My builder has been a little, "well, this is what Marazzi told Arbuckle Flooring, so ....", but the interior designer helping me w/furniture 'n' stuff is very, "I can't believe YOU aren't throwing a fit! You're the first one to b*tch about things if you things you're getting ripped off or taken advantage of!" (She meant it in a nice way, I promise.) And, she's right. I don't know why I haven't been more aggressive about this - I think my tile guy showed me on a day when about 47 things were going wrong, and I kind of pushed it down and wouldn't let myself get upset about it. Then I left for two weeks, and this was how I thought I left the situation: tile guy told me he'd spoken to owner at Arbuckle Flooring, and he'd been advised to go through all the boxes and pick out the sheets w/the worst breaks, bring them in, and Scott (owner) would make sure they were replaced. His pocket or Marazzi's, I don't know. But that was the conversation I had w/my installer before I left, and yes, I ACTUALLY thought things might get handled in the way I was told while I was away. (Not my first rodeo, I should know better.) I get home, tile guy is out for a week w/tendonitis and my builder has no idea about this conversation. He wasn't present, and since tile guy and store owner have a relationship this may have been an "agreement" between the two of them that Scott didn't pursue if tile guy never showed up w/broken tiles. Why it didn't go down the way I expected while I was gone, I don't know. But WILL find out. Before I left, he "installed" a few sheets on a piece of backerboard for me to see if the squishing issue he was concerned about was going to be a real problem. Fortunately, it wasn't. However, we hand't wiped any grout over that sample board (waiting on right color.) You can see two breaks near top when looking for them, but all the glossy glare makes it hard to know what this will look like when viewed vertically: It's not as if it's been six months since this was ordered, maybe a bit over three since it arrived? At the most. Interesting, on the day we discovered all the damage Arbuckle Flooring owner was in OKC at Marazzi picking up more of the same product, because I'd just decided I wanted to use it on my kitchen backsplash. (was going to use same product, diff color.) Needless to say, he opened every box of the new stuff while he was there. I haven't had my hands on it, but I'm assured it's all in good shape. As I typed that, I realized: if second bunch was in good shape, there's no reason the first boxes should have had so much damage. They went through the same shipping/delivery process, right? Aargh! I'm going to call store owner right now to verify conversation I had w/my tile guy 3 weeks ago (I know, should have done it before I left), then get my builder involved. He's a good guy, just not very confrontational. The store owner IS, though, and he knows how much business he's gotten from me and from my builder in general. His relationship w/Marazzi is new, so maybe he's been hesitant to push them on anything, but if he won't I will. Again, thank you - I just needed to be told I wasn't being a picky b*tch (as has been said before) in this particular situation. Not that being one is a bad thing, esp when building a house!

There shouldn't be grout between the counter and bs because grout doesn't give. When transitioning from your horizontal counter to your vertical bs, you use caulk, only. So now someone, your GC is fine, has to remove the grout in that line, probably with a multimaster, and replace it with caulk, being mindful of the type of caulk with respect to your chosen materials.

If I "ignore" the issue, and just caulk over the crack, what's the worst that could happen? Second worst: Water leaks behind the caulk, destroys the studs behind the tile and the joists in the floor, and you have to rip out the whole shower stall, wall and floor and replace everything. And do mold remediation. Worst: Water leaks in there, destroys the studs behind the tile and the joists in the floor, and you step in the shower one morning and the joists give way and you and the shower stall end up in the basement. No fooling, this happened to a friend ... he caulked around the base of a leaky toilet because he didn't want to have to remove/replace toilet and fix the problem. About a year later he sat on the toilet and ended up in the basement because the joists had rotted. The paramedics were amused.

First and third images: The carpet installer, in the parlor, with the knee kicker. The humidity, or lack thereof, caused the baseboard to crack along the woodgrain because of the undue stress applied forcefully from the carpet Second image: The trim carpenter, in the bedroom, with the coping saw. The atmospheric conditions cause the repaired door trim to separate (fail) at the repair joint across the woodgrain after years of iRobot abuse. What do I win??