Seems to me like the less stuff you have to "tear out" prior to replacing it with something you like, the better. For floor tile, if you have a concrete slab, can't you just tell them to skip tiling the floor entirely and just leave you with a bare concrete floor? There are enough concrete floors out there that getting a certificate of occupation with concrete floors shouldn't be a problem. Sure, most people who have concrete floors have them stained and polished but I doubt the city is going to care if YOUR concrete floor are "ugly" when they're inspecting for you CO. Then, when you're ready to put in the good tile that you like, you won't have anything to clean up first. And, if your builder says he won't give you a credit for the tile flooring that he won't be installing, INSIST that he has to deliver the tile that he would have used to you b/c, even tho you have decided against installing it, you HAVE paid for it and you have another use for it. (You can always sell it on Craigslist.) Or, if you're tiling your shower and tub surrounds, offer to let him NOT deliver the floor tile to you in exchange for a credit for the value of those tiles that you can apply to upgraded tiles for the shower and tub surrounds. (You pretty much have to go ahead and tile your showers and tub surrounds and pulling that stuff out and redoing it would be a major expense. Ditto with kitchen backsplashes. Why put in ANY backsplash at all just to have to tear it out later? You can live without a backsplash - I know b/c I still haven't picked something out for my kitchen backsplash even tho we've now been in the house for two years! - and getting the CO shouldn't require you to have one. So, just tell the builder to skip installing a back splash at all and slap a coat of paint on the wall there. That way you don't have to worry that you'll tear up the wall board trying to get the unwanted tile backsplash down.

Something bad happened that actually was a very, very good thing... After following breiaj's instructions to the letter, two of the floor tiles in the bathroom popped up a couple of days later and wouldn't stay stuck. When I pulled them up the rest of the way, I found a leak! If it hadn't been for those tiles unsticking, we wouldn't have found that leak until it did a LOT more damage - like made a big ole mess of the kitchen ceiling. So here's one way in which vinyl tile might actually be BETTER than sheet! A few notes WRT breiaj's instructions... I admit to dropping back to $3.99 paintbrushes because they became unworkable so quickly - the glue would start to dry up in the bristles while we were working and it would become more like a paddle than a brush! We didn't have any problems with bristle loss. 2" flat-ended paintbrushes were just the right size, a wider brush seemed like it would save time but was really more awkward to work with, especially with cut pieces. Don't bother wearing rubber gloves in hopes of keeping your hands clean, they stick to the tile's adhesive and to the adhesive you're spreading on and just generally irritate the crap out of you. :-) The adhesive - Armstrong's anyway - is kind of hard on your hands though, and contrary to the label does not wash off with soap and water! We ended up using a "painter's wipes" product we had on hand to clean up our hands about every hour because we would get too sticky to work effectively, and our fingertips were pretty raw and sore afterward. Even though it costs a bit more it's a lot easier to work with the smaller containers of adhesive using this brush-on method, because the bucket gunks up something awful. If you're laying more than about 100 square feet, seriously consider coughing up for the vinyl tile cutter (homedepot.com has one for about $50, or you can rent a superduper heavy-duty one for about the same for a weekend)... scoring and snapping with a utility knife sucks after a while, it's slow and hard on your hands. Make sure you have a comfortable utility knife no matter what though, and a LOT of blades. Stanley makes a really nice knife in their FatMax line, with a rubber-cushioned handle. A jamb or undercut saw ($15) makes dealing with those door jambs SO much easier than trying to cut the tile around them! We removed the baseboards; we were going to replace them with vinyl cove but the damn stuff just would not cooperate so we patched the baseboards with wood filler galore and put them back, and it looked SO much neater than butting the tiles up to the baseboards. deeje, I've checked around with several manufacturers of vinyl tile and the biggest deal WRT moisture is not to slop around too much water when you mop - contrary to popular belief, you don't need a gallon bucket full of near-boiling water and some vile chemical to get a floor clean! Try a well-squeezed-out sponge or terrycloth/microfiber mop instead of a sopping string or rag mop instead. Those microfiber cleaning cloths fit on Swiffer handles really well, if like me you are too cheap to buy the Swiffer cloths. :-) ctaylors6, the instructions in the Cryntel box agree with the Lowes guy - wash well-secured vinyl very well, rinse well, allow to dry thoroughly. I'd use something like TSP that would destroy any gloss on the existing floor. Our vinyl was trashed so we couldn't leave it, so I can't speak to the adhesive method on top of vinyl. We still haven't gotten the kitchen floor laid down yet. We had to tear out some of the subfloor and replace it, and then do a lot of leveling and sanding on the rest, got diverted with a day of electrical work, and to top it all off DH has been sick as a dog. :-( Cross your fingers for this weekend!

Here's what I'd do. Clean, clean, clean...(actually, it looks pretty clean already, but I bet those cabinets need a really good going over...) Paint, paint, paint...(I'd use two shades of off-white...a slightly ivory toned one for cabinets, and a barely darker, grayer one for the brick and backsplash). Use good paint and do the prep really well. Glass doors on the two cabinets on either side of the window, with the insides painted the same color as the backsplash, and your glasses and good cups stored there. New countertops (there is lots of really attractive laminate out there now), new deep, wide single-bowl stainless sink, better faucet, new cabinet hardware. Flat glass cooktop, new hood. A big framed mirror hung behind the cooktop to cover the brick and open the wall. Roman shade in a great black and white print hung at ceiling height, instead of the shutters on the window. A few thousand dollars later, you have something light and functional that you can live with until you are ready to do it all over. Figure that you will be living with it for five years, add up the cost, divide by 1,825 (the number of days in five years), and that's what it costs you to be happy in your kitchen every day while you wait. Spend $4,000, and it's about $2.20/day. Less than half a latte. (Can you tell I've made this pitch with clients before...??) ;>)

"Just wait until you have to pack up all that crap and move it." My SIL just bought a retirement home so they are decluttering their current house as a preparation for selling it--she keeps telling me she can't believe how much STUFF she's got to get rid of. When I go to their house I always admire how it looks nicely organized and without extraneous things all over. However, I also admire her tons of closets and storage space which she says leads to keeping, you guessed it, all that stuff LOL. I've decided I will play a mental game this summer and pretend we have to move; maybe that will be my motivation to get rid of much unnecessary and unused stuff in our house! I use the holidays and shopping for gifts to satisfy any yen I may have to be a retail hunter/gatherer. The past few years I increasingly feel as if I am gorging myself after staying on a careful and healthy diet; by the time January comes I feel so psychically bloated from all the shopping /buying that I need another year to rest up and recover! It's interesting to me to watch my young adult daughter who is setting up her first home. She loveslovesloves Home Goods, Marshalls, Pier 1 etc. And when I go with her I usually find stuff I could easily buy. I have a rule that I can't take anything from those places home the day I see it. That usually short circuits the purchase, I'm rarely motivated enough to fight the traffic and crowds to go back a second time!