JW-- The house is older (builder is long gone) and we did a complete renovation. I have a rather flexible schedule, so we thought we could save some money if I was the GC essentially. Only problem with that plan was that sometimes, regardless of how much you read up, you simply don't know the right questions to ask and you can't foresee any of the million things that could go wrong or not happen exactly as you planned. The tile installer is a good guy. He did a lot of work for us--3 bathrooms (floors, 2 showers, 1 tub) and installed bamboo floor throughout the rest of the house (2800 sqft). Because of the amount of work, he brought in some extra guys. I'm not sure if those guys were quite as experienced, so some things had to be re-done. He's been good in that sense, so far. This bit with the shower tile edge is just something we didn't really expect. He told us he had to "float the wall out" and we asked if it would "look okay." He said, "Sure." Maybe his aesthetics are different than mine. If we'd known more about tile setting, maybe we could have foreseen this result and come up with a solution prior to setting the tile. It sounds like you certainly know what you're doing and, as someone who's had to work with so many different craftsmen and tradesmen in this process, I commend you for taking a proactive approach. It seems like far too often tradesmen want to get started on the job, don't bother to ask any questions, and when something goes wrong the homeowner is to blame. I'm not saying the homeowner is blameless, but sometimes we just don't know what questions need to be asked. We have the answers, we know what we want; we just don't always know the question that needs an answer, especially when it comes to specific trades.

They do make bullnose tiles for edges that have a rounded edge. If the tile that you are using does not have edge pieces that you can get, you could pick an accent tile to border it that has bullnose tiles, use a decorative tile molding (pencil, dental, etc.), caulk the edge, or lightly sand and stain the edge to match the rest of the tile (last resort). We do that with travertine in the showers (not sure exactly how the tile guy does that).

I cannot address the install question but we have a similar tile in our shower, and we really like it. 3+ years of shopping tile and this is the only one hubs liked. I was apprehensive for the reasons mentioned above but it has not been a problem. It hasn't been difficult to keep clean and only one of us actually squeegees. No one in our house can be bothered to wipe with a towel, lol. Our mastiff gets bathed in it once a week (he has terrible allergies). The shower gets cleaned afterwards w/ a soft sponge and mild dish soap. It only takes a few minutes. No mildew, etc. I agree that you will not like a darker grout. We matched to the tile and it just disappears. You won't lose any of the handmade effect of the tile by matching the grout. Up close our grout varies in thickness due to the nature of the tile edge. Good luck with your project!

I understand and appreciate your thoroughness in trying to review with limited information. The root of the problem is each sub and project manager did not check the work they were building on. Otherwise could have been prevented. This is why I was afraid to do a project as I am not a contractor and very scary when I know more then they do. In my opinion, the pony wall (that I never wanted in the first place) is out of alignment and therefore everything else is too. On the back of the pony wall, they built the cement out too far and now can't install the tile within the trim, ugh