It's very in fashion right now to have a contrasting grout with subway tiles but if you want to minimize the grout lines, then use the french vanilla. I have it both ways in my house - my kitchen has white subway tiles with white grout and my bathroom has white subway tiles with grey grout (I wanted to emphasize the pattern in there on the floor and wanted the walls to match) and I love both. It just depends on what YOU like but I would not use a lighter/contrasting grout on the deco strip. I have black trim tile in my bathroom and the light grey grout really pops the lines a LOT. I don't mind it in there but in your case it would be worth it to mask the deco from the field and apply a grout that will be closer in color to the deco so you don't emphasize the lines. I would do the line between the field tile and the deco with the darker grout because the lighter grout would emphasize any uneven edges of that listello. I'm also talking from the point of view of someone who has been remodeling her bath since last thanksgiving and just wanting to get it done. If you DO have extra you should certainly identify the worst and replace them though, no reason to not take advantage of that "easy" fix if it's available to you. The extra pieces won't do you much good just sitting around ;). In that long shot there is only one "bad" one that stands out to me, the 4th from the left on the bottom. The rest look okay and will look even better once grouted. Grout just kind of pulls the whole thing together. It seems like such a minor detail but it really isn't. Your color palate is gorgeous and warm, the decos are beautiful and rich looking. When the paint is as rich as the decos are I think you will be happy with the final product. You're just suffering from a bit of remodel fatigue and sick of looking at it all. I can't imagine you not loving it when it's all together.

Custom -- unique -- those can be euphemisms for weird and bad. While this house contains some nice features, it also contains some bad ideas that will not live comfortably -- things no one's going to like in real life. And it is expensive in ways that don't help the looks or efficiency of the house. - The entryway has a barrel vault that leads into an arch . . . and beyond that is a coffered ceiling . . . and then you have another arch off to the left. These are all expensive, showy ceiling features -- but having all of them within arms' length means they will "compete" with one another. One feature of good design is that it contains "enough" . . . without going overboard. Note that your inspiration plan contains multiple coffered ceilings, but it doesn't mix and match ceiling features. Repetition in design creates a sense of harmony. - On the subject of arches -- I love them and wonder why people aren't building them anymore. But they're an expensive feature, and I would never spend the money to build one between the kitchen and the mudroom, especially since it's tucked behind the kitchen cabinets and would literally only be seen as people come /go from the house. Unless your budget is genuinely unlimited, put your resources in spots where they're going to show. - I agree with the poster who mentioned the difficult turns necessary to enter either of the secondary bedrooms. If the aforementioned elderly relative needs a walker or a wheelchair, this will be difficult. It would be easy to move the door to the smaller bedroom to an easier-to-access spot. Will this relative live with you all the time? If so, he or she will probably need more than an 11x11 room with a small closet -- could you happily move all your personal effects into this room permanently? I ask because this was a MAJOR FIGHT with my easy-going grandmother only a few years ago, and she NEVER got over having to get rid of so much stuff. I agree with the poster who suggested making the larger office room a bedroom for the elderly relative. - An ADA bath in a 9x9 space. Is that possible? Okay, it's possible, but I mean, is it possible to do it well? - The master bath is large but contains SIX DOORS. Stop and visualize six doors in this space. The master bath is also laid out poorly: When you walk in, your sightline is the corner of the shower. And the toilet closet is tiny and cramped -- backing into a 6' deep closet and scootching over to the side so you can close the door (plunging yourself into darkness) won't be comfortable. Why plan two sinks in such a small vanity? It means you'll have no drawer space. What is the dry area in the shower? What is keeping it dry? Note that when you walk into the bathroom, you'll have to close those double doors and reach behind them to turn on the light switch. With all this space allotted to the master bath, you can absolutely have something better than this. - The great room is a positive ray of sunshine in an otherwise chaotic plan. Ditto for the foyer. - The odd extra hallway (containing a butler's pantry?) near the dining area is wasted space. Why would anyone walk through this hallway when the foyer is literally two steps farther away? - The kitchen doesn't work on any level. It's huge, but everything is so far apart! Your "major players" -- the sink and the stove and your prep space -- are all disconnected from one another. Why would you want your ovens in the dining room? Look at the floor plan and imagine yourself going through the motions of preparing one of your favorite meals. Likely it's going to include too many "walk across the kitchen" trips. I think you're falling for the oh-so-common idea that a BIG kitchen = a GOOD kitchen, and that is axiomatically false. An EFFICIENT kitchen = a GOOD kitchen. - What you're calling the Hearth Room could be an incredible dining room, and it's completely wasted as a sitting area. Because it is connected to the great room, it has no privacy and serves no purpose as a separate room. - The table, in its current position, is blocking access to the kitchen and the Hearth Room. Imagine squeezing by either end once chairs are in place. - If you move the sink in the mudroom to the same wall as the washer/dryer, you will save significant money. Why? Because you'll limit your water needs to one wall. That means only one wall needs to be thick enough to run water, and the plumber only has to work on one wall. I don't love the island in the middle of this room. This is a storage room / a pass-through room. The island actually creates a barrier. - I personally dislike the "friends' entrance" concept. I'm making the front door nice. I'm arranging guest parking to encourage people to see /enter through the front door. I'm setting up a table for purses/keys, etc. I don't want people traipsing in through the back door where I'm storing plastic bags, recycling, and dog food. And if this is a "friends' entrance", for whom is the front door? Enemies? I don't invite them over. - I agree with the posters who say most rooms are over-sized. You could easily reduce most rooms by 25% and still have comfortable spaces. The exceptions are the two secondary bedrooms, which don't seem to fit in with the rest of the sizing. - The hallways could be vastly reduced, and that could make up the price difference you mentioned -- you need the foyer hall and the two small halls to reach the bedrooms, but the giant freeway running through the middle is just expensive wasted space. I do like the inspiration plan's connection between the mud room and the hallway -- it promotes good flow in two directions, without being over-sized. Were you the poster from a couple months ago who loved hallways because of a wall treatment you saw in a model home's hallways? - A garage sticking out on the front doesn't make for a very attractive exterior. - You're going with a basement AND a bonus room over the garage? I'd pick one or the other, which would eliminate one staircase -- do not underestimate the cost of a staircase. Actually, staircases cost in both money and square footage. Either a basement OR a bonus room will give you a secondary living space. Again, this house has some redeeming features, but they are so buried under the oddities and mistakes that it's hard to find them. I vote for a fresh start. This post was edited by MrsPete on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 18:21

Sadly, we can't keep it now. For one thing, I found out the cost of matching the tile to the area which does not have it, would be approximately $2000. I never expected that, had no idea new encaustic tile was that much money let alone that wasn't even the price to exactly match it, just for some other encaustic tile in general - I never even got around to asking how much it would be for a special order. Once I found out the price of their stock line, that was that. Aside from that anyway, when demolition began it really dinged up the edges of the existing tile rather badly. I had to take a hard look at the situation and when my BF even admitted that he felt it might be the wrong move to try and salvage it (he, I think, was more in love with it than I) I finally admitted defeat. I am now on a quest to try and figure out the best material to float over the floor. I've been told that laying regular ceramic over is the easiest method but I really would prefer a wood floor to match the rest of the house. So - not sure yet what's going to happen. Bummer for sure.

It took me multiple readings of this thread to understand your room's dimensions and obstacles but I think I finally got it. Think being the operative word here. I'm sure I missed something. ;-) Anyhoo, it seems to me that the biggest hurdle you face is having too many interruptions on each length of wall. I agree that if at all possible, the DR hutch and built-in ex-ironing board cab should be kept. And it seems a shame not to take advantage of those recesses on each side of the DR hutch. So I turned my attention to the opposite wall and and played with the idea of moving the doorway from the outer room into the kitchen. I realize this means moving utilities and all that but it might be cost effective if it means you don't need to do as much customization of cabinetry in your kitchen. I just checked and with a few minor tweaks, you can make this plan work with Ikea cabinets. This is what I came up with: The outer room will be on large space, a mud room with utilities (behind doors), W/D and whatever else you want to keep out there. Moving the door down to the end gave me enough room to put the fridge, DW, sink and range all in one section of your kitchen, creating a very efficient work zone for 1 cook. The fridge is slightly recessed into the wall so that it's bulk is less obvious. The DR hutch is bordered by 2 pull-out pantry cabs with a shallow cabinet between them. You could mimic the DR hutch, giving a nod to your home's past. It also gives you a decent section of shallow counter to set down bags of groceries or a place for small appliances such as toaster, coffee maker, etc. You can fit the GE spacemaker MW above (it fits in a 12" deep upper cabinet). You could also make this section standard depth, sitting slightly proud of the pantry cabs on either side. You'd still have a 49.5" aisle, which will help your smallish space feel less squished. As someone above suggested, I moved the ex-ironing board cabinet. I shifted it over towards the window, next to the range so that it can continue its life as your spice cabinet (love this!). With all the storage on the DR hutch wall, I think that you just might be able to go without upper cabinets elsewhere, which will also help your kitchen feel spacious. You can fill in the old doorway space with an interior window - fixed or working, your choice. If the view isn't nice but you want the light, put in a real or fake stained glass window or other type of obscure glass. Or you can just make it a wall. Note: aisle measurement is counter edge to counter edge. I assumed a 1.5" counter overhang.