Hi, Again - First, I do like my KitchenAid dishwasher - especially the cool blue lights. It works well, even though I'm afraid to put in truly dirty dishes! I can't recall which model it is, but I can look it up if you want the info. Second, Etc. - Here are the photos I promised: More photos of White Fantasy Quartzite than you probably wanted (Is it wrong to be obsessed with this countertop?): Photos of Lutron Switchplates and Dimmers (I forget the color, but the line is Diva and Maestro - and I got samples and placed them against my backsplash to see if they matched. They did, perfectly - yay!) OK, I also included more photos of candy, because I'm also obsessed with that. Note that the kids are not allowed to touch the apothecary jars, but the penny candy jars are all theirs. Yes, I do laugh at myself:: I think the photo with the apothecary jars shows a good sample of the jet mist granite, too: Here are photos of the pendant lights and the Hickory Hardware American Diner pulls, knobs and cup pulls. They aren't great pics, unfortunately. The thing that ties the cabinet hardware, pendant lights and kitchen faucet/hot&cold water dispenser together are that they are all satin nickel and they all have "beading" - a row or two rows of banding - at the edges. I hope you can see that in the pics. I do occasionally catch my sweaters on the knobs and pulls, but as I haven't ruined anything yet, I don't mind: I just realized you can click on the photos to go to my album, where you can see larger version of them, which may be helpful for details. A few additional thoughts. I debated putting in the outlets on the horizontal, so they would blend in with the subway tile backsplash. Of course, as soon as I made up my mind, I went to tell my contractor, who was in the kitchen, installing the outlets upright. Oh, well. I can definitely live with it (although I had to work very hard to convince him to install the Lutron outlets/switchplates -he thought white was just fine. Silly man!) Also, although I thought I had thought everything through, using the great advice from everyone here, I'm not happy with my silverware drawers. There aren't enough - really because they are very shallow. I think I should have figured out how to put in at least one or two deeper drawers so I could have put in two layers of silverware, knives, etc. Also, I thought I was going to have three drawers underneath my cooktop, with the top drawer to be used for untensils. It turned out that I can't use the top drawer at all because of the depth of the cooktop. I'm not sure what I would have done differently, but I wish I could use that drawer! Anyway, I think that's it for now, until I show you the "before" and the bathroom. Thanks again!

I love Fireclay Tile. It's all handmade and the glazes are gorgeous. Samples are five for $5 with additional samples for $2 a piece. Their Foundations line is $15/SF for 3" X 6" subways and several other sizes. Both Moonshine and Nickel have blue tones, and are very pretty. They have some incredibly beautiful blues, in fact, after the neutrals I think blue glazes are their greatest strength. These vary in price by glaze. You like the bolder blues, which is great! I would sample Martinique and Mayan Blue for sure, but you might want to check out their web site, and consider less saturated colors and greyer blues as well. one of the grey blues I love with a passion is called Nautical. It's over budget at $28/SF. Here it is installed. And here is Loch Ness installed ove a counter similar to yours. A little dark, but very pretty.

Creative Tile Eastern CT said: "Tough one to explain. Based on 1/4" per/ft. slope or 2%. Shower 10'x3' for example. If the drain is 5' away from the far wall your floor will slope 1-1/4"" from wall to drain. If that same shower is 36" wide with drain in the center it will slope 1-1/4" in 18" as the height around the perimeter remains the same as the furthest distance." I reread this and looked at a pic of a walk in shower. I think I might get it. I keep focusing on the long part of the current tub/shower that will be a minor slope according to this explanation, but the issue would be that the other three sides would be a more steep slope so it wouldn't look uniform. that' more of the issue, right? It would potentially look like a tub inside of 4 walls (3 walls and a curb). The only thing is that I'm wondering how often tile guys use those exact dimensions because I've seen drains on one end and even fabricated showers with the drain on one side and I don't believe they end up looking like a tub. Maybe they don't drain well? I just visited a friend's really pretty shower with 18" tile and in some spots her shower was level and other parts it was 1/2 a bubble. We looked at the water sit on top of the tile and never go down the drain. It's AZ but she is starting to see minor calcium deposits so will now have to squeegy the floor, too, which wouldn't be good.

Yes, staggering the sheets, but there's actually more to it than that (how you trowel the thinset, etc. and control your grout joints). Sometimes even pulling the pennies off and hand setting at the sheet perimeters . Techniques that an experienced professional understands. We don't know the material and how it was mounted so without all the information.....