Clumsy, my patuty!! WOW!! Where do you live??? Can I come out and tile your bathroom??? :-) In all seriousness, that's going to be one sweet masterpiece to put together! Before I get to your questions, though I do see one problem. It's going to be tough to run the chair rail through the shower and have any kind of glass enclosure. Not impossible, but tough. You would have to work together with your glass guy to figure out EXACTLY where the glass would go, so you could leave notches in the chair rail. I can guarantee you-- they're not going to notch the glass for you. :-) Now, on to the questions: #1-6) What you have drawn is excellent. With reference to the subway tile, no, the corner pieces do not need to be mitered. What you can do is cut the pieces, but then turn the cut edge into the field, and use the "factory" edge as the bullnose. Now, I said they don't NEED to be mitered. However, if you'd PREFER to miter them, there's no reason why you couldn't. It's not like it's ceramic where you'd have to worry about a sharp edge. As for the chair rail and liner, you're right. Those WOULD have to be mitered. The biggest tip I could give you about mitering the chair rail would be to have a piece of 2x4 handy with a 45 degree mitered end on it. You can place the mitered side of the 2x4 against the wet saw tray table's edge, and that'll give you the correct angle, and the thickness of the 2x4 will give you something to make sure you're standing the chair rail up straight while you cut it. If you decide that you want to miter all the outside corner tiles, the only advice I can give you is leave a little "meat" on the edge. You don't want to take the miter all the way to the face of the tile. If you do, you'll end up with an extremely ragged edge. Leave 1/16" of meat or so on the front edge. The finished miter will still look just as tight, and it'll be 100% stronger. #7) Don't worry about continuing the cuts. Atleast not on the subway tiles. For the most part, the ONLY time you really need to worry about it is when you use a diagonal layout. With running bond (the brick joint pattern), there's no need to continue it. Take each wall individually. Now, the best thing is to center the walls. However, sometimes that gives you small pieces on each end. With a square layout, moving the layout over half a tile, so the tile is centered instead of the grout joint, the problem is solved. With running bond, if you move it over half a tile, it puts you right back where you started!! So how do you move the layout over and still keep it centered? Move it over a QUARTER of a tile (1 1/2"). What this does is it'll give you equal, but alternating cuts. Lay it out on paper and try it-- You'll see what I mean. #8) Yes, that's normal. #9) Ya had to give me a hard one!! :-) You're right-- this CAN be tricky. But you're dead on the right track. You need to figure out your coursing (each course is one tile and one grout joint). Lets say yout tile is exactly 3" high, and you're using a 1/4" grout joint. Going by your drawing, I come up with a height of 51 1/2" high. You show a 6x12 piece on the bottomwith the 1/4" joint, that's 6 1/4". Next is 12 courses of subway tile. That's 39 inches (with 12- 1/4" joints). Then the pencil liner, which, if it were me, would get an 1/8" joint (to match the joint in the 3 rows of mosaics), so that's another 1 1/8", and then I'm assuming the chair rail is 2", plus another 1/8" joint, 2 1/8". Just a side note-- this would be another reason for NOT using the chair rail, unless you have the shelf come out over the top of the chair rail. With the other three sides, you can either cap the edges of the niche pieces, or you can have the niche pieces cap the edges of the wall. But the shelf MUST come over the edge of the wall tile. You want any water running down the face of the tile, rather than going into the grout joint. Alot of times, I'll even use a piece of granite tile, and round it out PAST the face of the tile, so that it doesn't even come doen the face of the tile, but actually gives a drip edge. Okay-- back to your niche. Just for the sake of argument, lets say the height is 51 1/2". You want to take into account the thickness of the cement board, as well as the kerdi (figure 5/8"). I would also, as you surmised, give it extra as a "fudge" factor . That way if you need the play, it's there, and if you don't, you can always fill it in with thinset. If it were up to me, and the chair rail was definitely going to stay, I'd set the framing at 50 1/2". The only question is, are you going to set your levels off the finished floor, or off the subfloor? Personally, I'd set it off the subfloor, but when I actually set the tile, set it over the finished floor, cutting it in. That way, if the floor's out of level at all, you'll never see it. Either way, it's up to you. The point is, I'd set the bottom of the niche framing an inch below what you expect the actual coursing to be. #10) That's the way it LOOKS when it's done. :-) You start with a full course above by nailing a piece of wood, and tiling off of that, and then removing it afterward and cutting in the bottom. As for the Kerdi in the shower, you can patch the holes afterward with Kerdi-Fix. You want to wait as long as possible to tile the shower and bathroom floors. You never want to be working over finished work any more than absolutely necessary. #11) I already addressed this above. #12) Install your wood trim first and tile to it. #13) Diamond hole saw. You can check some of the online tile tool supply sites. if you have a hard time locating them, let me know, and I'll see what I can do to find em for you. #14) this is where we get back to the thing about going from center to 1/4 and 3/4 tiles to get back to center. It works with diagonal layout, too. One other thing to think about, and this would work as a nice design feature, too-- from the chair rail up, turn one row of subway tiles on end, running them lengthwise up the sides of your diagonal tiles as a border. WOW!! This reminds me of Rodney Dangerfields's movie Back To School-- to paraphrase right after he finishes the oral exam and says "I feel like I just gave birth!! To an apprentice!!"

While Aprince's advice to go to a store to listen to a few is OK, the reality is that the stores usually don't have many connected, and there is so much other noise in an appliance store you won't be able to tell much. Also, your home's ductwork will be different, which will have an effect on the noise level. BTW, I am assuming you are having ductwork. If you are doing a recirculating hood, then my following paragraph on ductwork is irrelevant to you. But if you DO have ductwork, check what is its diameter. If it is, e.g. 6" diameter, that will make your selection easier because it limits your choices, as most (but not all) 600 cfm hoods need 8" diameter duct. If you will be installing new ductwork, make sure the contractor installs an 8" duct, and don't let him tell you that 6" is OK, or try to sneak 6" by you. Stand firm on the 8". Smaller ducts increase noise. Many complaints about noisy hoods are actually related to a too-small duct. Try to get a hood with baffle filters, not mesh. Mesh filters clog fairly quickly, and thereby lose efficiency until you put them in the DW. Baffle filters get just as dirty of course, but don't lose efficiency as they get coated with grease. Restaurant hoods only use baffle filters. My final advice is to try to get the deepest hood you can. Since I am sure you will be limited to a 30" width hood over your 30" Bluestar range, try to buy a hood that is closer to 27" deep (i.e. front to back) if possible, and if within your budget. At the very least don't go shallower than 24". You will find lower-priced hoods that are less than 24" deep, which will not provide enough capture area over your range. The 27" deep ones, while better, are harder to find, and more expensive. So you have some shopping to do! Definitely do searches on this forum about hood brands. Don't forget eBay. Many people on this forum have gotten wonderful deals on hoods there.

You did a great job polly929. It's funny how kids of different personalities/ages take in and process information. My own DD was starting middle school that year, and the school was opening later in the month due to renovation construction on our middle school building. I was at work that day, so DD was with my MIL and my nephew at SIL's house. After seeing just the first few minutes of network coverage (we had all conference room tvs on in the office), the first thing I did was call my MIL to ask her not to tune in at all. I didn't want my DD watching wall to wall coverage. Just didn't think it was a good thing. It was hard enough as an adult to watch. Long story short, I guess curiousity got the best of MIL, and she turned and kept the television tuned in... The issue for me with DD watching was more of the fact that there wasn't any filter. Coverage that day contained none of the warnings when that coverage is now replayed. No warnings that material may not be suitable for children, or is of a sensitive nature for some. We watched real time coverage of some horrible things. People who chose to jump from windows of the buildings rather than face burning to death. These people knew they were going to die, but thought jumping was a better way to go. Those images are forever burned in my memory. A beautiful fall day, I can even remember which suit I was wearing, every single detail of that day is still with me. By the time I could get to SIL's to pick up my DD, which wasn't all that long after my call. Our local office closed around 11 a.m., and by 1 p.m. I was answering DD's questions. Never in my wildest dreams would have imagined those questions that I would have to answer. Sure, DD was going to be a 6th grader, but it was too much to watch. DD's good friend lost her father that day, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee. We talked alot about that in particular. Why? was the biggest question from my DD. It is hard to explain "why?" to a child. The oddest thing of all IMHO, is that our school district did NOTHING, no moment of silence, no acknowledgment at all on the 9/11 anniversaries, despite the fact we had kids in attendance throughout the district lost loved ones. Go figure? I once asked DD's middle school history teacher, who happened to also be her guidance counselor, why this was. He explained that the district felt it was up to the parents to handle telling their own children about the event. Apparently, they didn't want to say anything about the event, for fear of a backlash from parents who totally shield their children. I don't agree that we shouldn't tell our kids when bad things happen. I think we should share an age appropriate amount of information, welcome all questions, and deal with those questions on an ad hoc basis. Polly, I will be thinking of you and your friend & her family on Sunday. It is comforting to have your closest friends to lean on, especially on a day that marks...

THANK YOU for all of your replies! You have no idea how much it has helped. We did talk to the pool builder and explained again that we wanted to work it out. They believe they can get this phase done with one more day's work and then move on. Our pool contract addendum states that we will pay him 5% after completion of this phase, and then the remaining (and final) 5% before pebblesheen. Our PB told us that we could either - A. Pay him the 5% immediately and get two days of work from him in a row, or....B. Pay him after he finishes this phase (as the contract states) and he won't be able to schedule us again for two weeks. He said it would be unfair to his other customers to be at our place two days in a row. He also blamed us for the four month process - saying that I hadn't chosen the grout color in a timely manner. Unbelievable. He is obviously looking for any excuse at this point. To top it all off, the stacked stone steps to the spa he built on Wednesday have been falling off. It seems that they mortared the vertical walls to DIRT, I'm no mason, but I do know that grout, cement, etc. doesn't stick to dirt. I'll post pictures tomorrow morning. I had called the ROC immediately after our PB had told us that if we pursued an ROC hearing, he would abandon working on our pool. The ROC told us that if our PB did that, it would be seen as retaliation against us for trying to protect our rights, and would NOT be in the interest of the PB. It is a direct violation of the statutes. At least our PB was kind enough to threaten this in an email, easy proof for later. The ROC also told us to forget paying this guy another penny (as all of you have suggested) until the final inspection is complete. Our payment schedule has been way out of line from the norm - we had paid him way too much up front before finding out from the ROC what the payment schedule should be. So, we are sending the PB an email in the morning to let him know we expect him to finish this pool. After final inspection, before Pebblesheen, we will give him the remaining 10%. If he wishes to stop work on the pool, we will consider it job abandonment and take it up with Administrative Judge at the ROC. What a friggin bummer. I absolutely hate that it's come to this, but we are just so tired of being brow-beat from this guy! If he does stop work on our pool, so be it. We tried to make the best of it tonight, telling each other that we will just focus on the BBQ kitchen, get some other outside bids, and enjoy other things. What's another couple of months to wait when we've already waited so long? It will all turn out OK. It is, after all, just a pool. THANK YOU AGAIN for all of your terrific advice. I might just be posting pictures of my kids or something for awhile since we won't have any pool pictures :). But someday soon, we will have water!