Thanks flyleft and houseful, houseful, I am sorry about your grandmother. 47 is too young. For most brain tumors, the prognosis is dismal, which is partly why I am interested in investigating them from a research standpoint. I have also always been interested in studying the brain. I just think there is so little we know about it. I love the refin tiles, flyleft. They are listed as being sold here in phx. at AZtile where I got my current tiles in the pics, but I didnt see them there. I will call and check this weekend. I had a licensed concrete floor contractor come by today. He also owns a business in CA and says concrete floors are very popular there, but not yet so much in phx. He quoted me $3k for the 400 sq. foot kitchen and 300 sq. feet of bathrooms, including removing the tiles. He does a technique called microtop, whatever that means. It comes with a 5 yr. warranty. If I go with it, I was thinking of a pewter gray, like in this pic.: http://www.lowcostplumbing.com/store3/bath-c-25.html He can even do lines in the concrete like the pic shows. What do you think? I know it would go with the dark cherry cabs., but not sure about the caramel maple cabs. It might look good, however with a dark cement or concrete caesarstone countertop (on sale 25% at great indoors btw). So these are my choices with wood everywhere else: 1. concrete floor in baths and kitchen 2500-3000 2. concrete floor in kitchen, tile in baths 3600 3. leave kitchen as is, concrete in baths 1200 4. leave kitchen as is, tile in baths 1800-2000 (for tile) The ultimate choice would be wood in kitchen (4000) and tile or concrete in baths (1800) = 5800+, but that is too much $$$. I posted a pic on the photobucket of cabinets from a mag. I modeled the master after. They may even be the exact cabs (Brookstone) in the exact color that I bought, according to the kd. I will have the same knobs and same faucet. I would put a cream concrete counter on them. flyleft, this is what I was trying to model the master after: http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o87/jeschbacher/ I know you gave me the name before, but what is a good book to get again on remodeling? I will go to borders this weekend and get it. LOL on the chair flyleft! I know what you are talking about! I am sure those chairs are extremely comfortable, but they are not for me. Copenhagen is a high end contemporary furniture store in the south west. http://www.copenhagenimports.com/ Thanks for the compliment on the chair. It looks much better in person. Thanks so much for your help guys. Lynn has also been great and even came over and looked at the place! jenny

We have polished concrete, but the color is integral, not a stain. Pigment was added at the time of mixing. I wear supportive slip-on shoes in the house because it does make my feet feel tired if barefoot, but my husband is fine with just socks. We did it because we wanted hydronic heat in the floor and tile throughout the first floor was estimated to be 10k and would have been just as hard. No joint issues have emerged in Year One. Our GC has been down this road before and is a fanatic about protection. The floors had a layer of Ramboard and a layer of paper placed before any other work took place. I'm sure the extra care cost something, but it is hard to say how much. People either like it or are repelled by it, that much is clear! Well, a few relatives who have probably never seen or heard of such a thing probably remain mystified... I sure like it when it's time to clean it-- no place for anything to hide! We have cork upstairs, which I love, but I guess you don't want to add insulation between your heat source and living space, otherwise, I'd have had that everywhere. Woyld have a very different look, though!

Stamped concrete can only work on newly poured concrete. When the concrete is "green", close to cure, the powder color is added and then stamped on the fresh concrete to create an impression. Personally, I'm not crazy about it as to me it looks to fake. Your best bet to save money, is to paint the surface with a deck coating. Kelly Technical coatings has a line of deck coatings that have a variety of color choices. It's easy to apply and is water based. This will spruce up your patio nicely for an inexpensive cost. We did this for a customer a few years ago. It came out nice and it was inexpensive. You may have to re-coat every 2-3 years. It's lot cheaper than a new pour. Plus the cost to remove the existing, yard repair, etc... For the new section, you could integrate the natural stone as a border. As long as your new pour is separate from the old, you will not have any cracking. Even a 1/2" break is sufficient.

You've steamed off the finish. That tells me they have a polish....temporary polish. These types of finishes require LOTS of maintenance. The polymer polishes need a redo every 4-8 months. Yep. That's 1-3 times per year. Every year. For the length of time you leave the concrete exposed. But that's not all! You by to strip the polymer polish every 5th application. That's more work every 2 years or so. I would find a concrete flooring pro to come in and give you tutorial/add polish so that you can buy ALL the products you will need to DIG the finish for the next 25+ years. Until then I would use a shop vac. Wet mop with a pH neutral cleaner for floors and then vacuum up the water so you don't get too much water standing on it. BTW water etched and/or stains concrete. Concrete is porous....more then MARBLE!!!! Just so you know.